With the draw for Euro 2016 just days away, we assess the Republic of Ireland's potential opponents in France next summer. Today it's Pot 3 where the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary all lie in wait for Martin O'Neill's side.
Ireland will be in Pot 4 for the draw, which takes place on Saturday in France. Darragh Moloney will be joined by Richie Sadlier and Brian Kerr, with Tony O'Donoghue in Paris, from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, with Ed Leahy live blogging the draw on RTÉ News Now from 5pm.
Czech Republic
With just one defeat in their qualifying campaign and two wins over the Netherlands, the Czechs qualified for France 2016 in style and will be expecting to at least make the knockout stages next summer.
Manager Pavel Vrba blooded plenty of young players throughout the campaign, a gamble which paid off handsomely as his side played some very attractive aggressive and attacking football throughout. Vrba’s biggest problem has been finding a reliable top class goalscorer and to that end, he’s still on the hunt, but in Sparta Prague's Borek Dockal, he has unearthed a real threat from midfield and he was the top goalscorer for his side in qualifying.
The Czechs will be hoping that Arsenal duo Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky, are both fit, but barring injuries, this is a side that Martin O’Neill and his squad may well be hoping to avoid.
Hungary
Finishing third in Group F behind Northern Ireland and Romania, Hungary had to overcome a two-legged play off with Norway, winning 3-1 on aggregate to book their place in France – their first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup.
The Hungarians went through three managers during their qualifying campaign but current incumbent Bernd Storck seems to have hit upon the right formula, turning an average group of players into a hard working unit, that while low on flair, will battle hard for each other. There’s not many goals in this side and they scored just seven times in their first nine qualifying games before a freak 4-3 result on the final day improved their stats slightly.
Defeats to Northern Ireland and Greece in qualifying along with narrow wins over footballing minnows Faroe Islands are probably a true reflection of where Hungary are as a team and Ireland would be happy to face them in Euro 2016.
Poland
Martin O’Neill and Ireland know all about Poland after finishing behind them in Group D and it’s fair to say that they’ll be hoping to avoid Adam Nawalka’s side when the Euro 2016 draw takes place in Paris.
Suffering just one defeat in the campaign which came against World Cup holders Germany, Poland were able to produce the right result when the pressure was on and you wouldn’t back against them doing the same in the summer.
In Robert Lewandowski, they have one of the most in-form players in European football right now and if the striker can carry that into sort of the summer’s tournament there’s no telling how far they could go. Let’s just hope we don’t get to see him score against Ireland again.
Romania
A mean defence that saw them concede just two goals in the entirety of their qualifying campaign was enough for Romania to secure second place in Group F behind Northern Ireland but their lack of goals in what was a comparatively weak group will be a big worry for them heading to France.
With just 11 goals in ten games, not even an unbeaten record was enough for them to top the group, after five wins and five draws, but manager Anghel Iordanescu appears to have come to terms with that and is working around his limited attacking options.
Many members of Iordanescu's squad have been reduced to bit-part players at their clubs and while they have some decent defensive options in the likes Vlad Chiriches and Razvan Rat, along with Fiorentina goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, there’s little there to strike fear into Irish hearts.
Slovakia
Slovakia know all about causing upsets and will be hoping to repeat that feat at Euro 2016. Jan Kozak’s side handed Spain their first defeat in 36 qualifying games on their way to finishing second in Group C behind the defending champions and forced Ukraine to go down the play-off route.
Kozak can call upon some real midfield quality in the form of Marek Hamsik, Robert Mak and Vladamir Weiss. Slovakia get the majority of their goals from that midfield but lack a genuine top-class striker up front and, Hamsik aside, don’t really have anyone with that big of magic to unlock a stubborn defence.
Time is against the Slovakians too, with the majority of their squad the wrong side of 30, and this is likely to be the last major championships for a lot of them. Should Ireland face the Slovaks in France, we could well take three points.
Sweden
As harsh as Sweden’s 4-3 play-off win over local rivals Denmark may have been, there won’t have been too many tears from neutrals desperate to see the Zlatan show roll into Euro 2016.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the difference between those sides over the two legs, scoring three of his side’s four goals and most of the Swedes' hopes in France will rest with him. However, even the special talent that is Ibrahimovic isn’t always enough for his side, as evidenced by a qualifying campaign that saw them finish behind Russia and the unfancied Austria.
Outside of Ibrahimovic, manager Erik Hamren is presiding over a limited group of players and it’s a team that often defer to their star man too much, waiting for him to produce something magical rather than trying something themselves. Injury for Ibrahimovic, who at 34 is surely at his last major championship, would be a disaster and even with him, they may struggle to get out of their group.
Dream draw: Hungary. Northern Ireland have already shown that they’re a very beatable team and Martin O’Neill’s men would be expected to claim a victory over Bernd Storck’s side were they to face them in France.
Nightmare draw: Poland. The Polish have proven that they have the beating of Ireland and while O’Neill’s side have improved since suffering defeat in their qualifying game, there’s still the concern that our defence just wouldn’t have the answers to deal with Robert Lewandowski.
Watch out for previews on Pot 1 and 2 later this week.
