The World Cup group ‘could have been much worse’

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Republic of Ireland assistant coach Damien Duff says the team’s qualifying group draw for the 2022 World Cup “could have been much worse.”

Speaking ahead of RTÉ’s coverage of the Champions League clash between RB Leipzig and Manchester United, Ireland’s assistant coach also commented that it is up to the national team management not to make any more motivational videos, “even if they are based on real events and historical events that you should be proud of “as they can be” very offensive to some people. “

In yesterday’s World Cup qualifying draw, Ireland was included in Group A, which contains reigning European champions Portugal, second-seeded Serbia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.

Today it was revealed that Qatar, host of the World Cup, will also be included in the group, playing home and away games against all five teams, but with no points at stake.

Serbia ended up topping the Republic of Ireland’s final qualifying group for the World Cup, and Martin O’Neill eventually edged out Wales for the playoff spot in dramatic fashion before losing to Denmark.

However, the Serbs did not qualify for Euro 2020, despite being placed in League C of the Nations League, losing their playoff on penalties to Scotland.

Duff, who worked as the first team coach at Celtic in 2019-20, watched those playoff games and the evidence suggests our group could have been a lot tougher.

“Having many friends in Scotland after my last years, I watched the match (Scotland-Serbia) up close and Scotland definitely deserved to pass.

“We made life quite difficult going from second to third place, but the draw could have been much worse.

“The Qatar games are not a problem because they are at the end of each block.”

While the new administration has gotten off to a rocky start in life, with just three points collected in six Nations League games and the national team failed to win a game in a calendar year for the first time since 1971, Duff is confident in the first signs.

The assistant coach says that the most faithful marker of Ireland’s potential so far was the performance in Bratislava, where the team performed well before going on penalties.

“There is a lot of pessimism in the soccer team right now. But I think after the number of injuries, the Covid cases, everyone’s benchmark should be the Slovakia game.”

“A good team that dominates teams from all over Europe. We have gone there, we have dominated them, playing football in the right way, creating chances, playing through them. Not just playing direct things, not just crossing balls for the simple fact We play attractive soccer the way people want to play it.

“Between now and March, it’s just hoping the guys have playing time, lots of minutes, stay fit and stay good. Seamus (Coleman) will shoot for Everton again.”

And he talked about the recent motivational video controversy, which erupted after Ireland’s defeat at Wembley.

“And obviously it’s up to us staff not to make motivational videos because even if they are based on real historical events that you should be proud of, they can be very offensive to some people.

“So we’ll stay away from that next time in March.”



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