What have Ireland to do to reach the Euro 2016 play offs?

The last time they met Ireland in Dublin, Germany handed out a 6-1 drubbing during qualifying for the last World Cup.

Once all this has concluded, when does the actual tournament finally begin?

Their liklier route to France however is via the play-offs if they can finish in third position ahead of Scotland who host Poland tomorrow night.

Now at the business end of the qualifiers, Germany faces what is purportedly second-tier opposition. Or to put more fine a point on it, Ireland v The World Champions. They will top the group no doubt.

The Republic of Ireland has somewhat of a cushion.

Over in Group F Northern Ireland need a win against luckless Greece to make certain of reaching the finals of UEFA EURO 2016 – which would be their first European final. “We have a few ideas how to make the team better”. The rest participate in the playoffs, which will be held in traditional UEFA two-leg knockout ties. They have sputtered and stuttered forward and now appear on the verge of falling over the line into a play-off.

They will not need a result against the Germans or Poland if Scotland fail to get at least a draw at home to the Poles and a win over lowly Gibraltar in their final game. The only defeat for Ireland was against Scotland last November. Georgia pose very little of a threat, with only six points to their name. “They should enjoy it, that’s what the game is about”. Both Poland and Germany have conceded seven.

“A lot of people were writing us off because we had a tough group with Sweden and Austria, but when we did it, it was an unbelievable feeling”. One per match on average. If we take something from that it would be a miracle because they are a good team, but we need a performance to take us into the last game. The bad news is that the match in question is against world champions Germany.

In the first leg against Germany, it was another draw. Having held out for 71 minutes, Ireland went behind to a Toni Kroos goal. On the contrary, in many more cases it was more matches of attrition than anything else. A crowd of over 50,000 turned up at the Neidersachfen stadium to wave off their heroes before they departed to America to defend the title they’d won in Rome four years previously. Germany will have to be careful in this respect.

Excitement is also mounting in Northern Ireland, who last qualified for a major tournament at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

“We have got two very, very hard games coming up”.

Current manager of the German national football team, Joachim Low’s men suffered an unusually low start to their campaign. Nevertheless they kept their nerve and it was enough for a big swing in fortunes, with the Scots losing away to Georgia on September 4. “He’s full of energy and always comes here in really good spirits”. The Irish have improved – but so have Germany.

The draws against Poland and Scotland will no longer be frustrating but vital and gutsy points on the board.