Football of Ireland is not the most developed sports direction in the country. However, given the fact that this sport is literally legendary in the British Isles, they love it there even despite the fact that the players are not able to achieve impressive results on the international stage. But this does not mean that the Irish are complete outsiders. Ireland football experienced not only falls, but also ups. Further, more about this.
Success
The Irish national football team for a long time did not pose any danger to other teams. In 1930, the first international football tournament was held, but the Irish did not participate in it. Then they began to participate in the qualifications first for the World Championships, and then, from 1960, when the European Championship was held, and for the European Championships. However, Irish football was at a very low level, so for many years the team could not even qualify for the final part of the tournament.
Everything changed in 1988, when the Irish national team first qualified and went to the European Championships - but could not leave the group. In 1990, the Irish extended their success, having achieved the best result in history so far - they reached the quarterfinals of the World Championship, where they lost to Italians. Since then, the Irish have made it to the finals of the World Championships twice more, in 1994 and 2002, but both times they left for the 1/8 finals. As for the European Championships, the second time the team was able to reach the final part only in 2012, but did not even go through the group stage. And at the last tournament, the European Championship in 2016, she reached the 1/8 finals - for the first time the group stage at the European championships submitted to the Irish.
Record holders
Football in Ireland gave the world a lot of outstanding players in different periods of time, however, personalities were not enough to achieve serious success in team sport. Nevertheless, it is worth noting some of the record holders from this country. For example, striker Robbie Keane was known throughout the world - and he became the champion of the Irish national team in the number of matches played for her - 146 times the forward went on the field in a green T-shirt. His closest pursuer is goalkeeper Shay Given, who is also known to many, he has 134 matches. As for the goals scored, there is no equal to Keen either - he scored 68 goals in his 146 games. Here he doesn’t even have much competition - the closest to Keen is Frank Stapleton, who scored just 24 goals. Yes, and he spoke twenty years earlier than Robbie.