Ireland's checkered history 'Behind the Iron Curtain'

GIOVANNI Trapattoni warned, in the immediate aftermath, of Thursday’s play-off draw in Krakow that Ireland should not get ahead of itself after being paired with Estonia - and a glance through history would agree with the Italian’s cautious approach to the Talinn trip on November 11th.
 

“They beat Serbia and Slovenia and put Italy under a lot of pressure. Let's not make the common mistake to underestimate them,” Trapattoni warned.
 

The Republic of Ireland has had a sometimes fractious history playing against teams from ‘Behind the Iron Curtain’ and many a campaign’s hopes have been felled in Eastern Europe.

Ireland might well be the roaring favourites before their meeting with Estonia, but a trip to ‘The Bloc’ brings with it a cautious note. There was a time when Ireland was a frequent visitor ‘behind the
curtain’ for friendly fixtures. In Paul Rowan’s book ‘The Team That Jack Built’, former Irish international Ray Treacy joked. “I got 43 caps for Ireland, probably about 40 of them playing against Poland.”

Treacy actually played nine times against the Poles at a time when meetings between the teams were a regular feature on the calendar. “We were always behind the iron curtain. We became the local team after a few years we were over there so often,” Alan Kelly senior once remarked.
 

The memories weren’t all good ones either. Ireland’s hopes of making the finals of Euro 92 were effectively crushed by Poland. Ireland led 3-1 in Poznan - goals by Paul McGrath, Andy Townsend and Tony Cascarino - but left with a 3-3 draw. It, and the scoreless draw in Dublin, meant Ireland would be left at home for the summer.
 

Most of the Polish trips were for friendlies, yet they weren’t so successful jaunts. Ireland got hammered 6-0 in Warsaw on their first visit in 1938, lost 3-1 in Krakow in 1964, having managed a two-all draw in Katowice four years earlier. In 1968, FAI Secretary Joe Wickham collapsed and died of a heart attack during a 1-0 reversal in Katowcice.

Ireland’s first taste of a win in Poland was when Don Givens’s netted twice in a 2-0 win in Poznan in 1978, but normality was restored soon as Poland won the meetings over there in 1978, ’81 and ’86.
 

Against the former USSR, Ireland do have some fond memories, not least Ronnie Whelan’s acrobatic goal in Hanover at Euro 88. Fifteen years earlier, USSR came to Dublin having reached the final of the Euro 72, but on a memorable night in Dalymount, Don Givens was the hat-trick hero in a 3-0 win that marked the beginning of the Irish career of Liam Brady.
 

Ireland didn’t fare too well against the old Czechoslovakia, though. They did win a European Qualifier 2-0 in Dublin in 1959, but were whacked 4-0 in the return game. Two years later, Andy Fogarty scored in Prague, but there was no reason for Irish cheer as the hosts coasted to a 7-1 win.
 

On Ireland’s eighth trip ‘Behind the Curtain’ in 1967, Ray Treacy and Turlough O’Connor gave Ireland a 2-1 win on a night when the Czechoslovakia needed only a draw from the round one qualifier to get to the quarter-finals.
 

Two years later, Ireland were defeated 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Prague, while the 2-1 friendly defeat of 13 years ago to the now Czech Republic in Olomouc is remembered for the debuts given to Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and Mark Kinsella.
 

More recently, Kilbane needed the only goal of the game in Dublin, but the Czechs were 1-0 winners in Prague.
 

It took Ireland until their fifth trip to Hungary before they recorded a win, with Kevin Sheedy and David Kelly on the mark in a 2-1 friendly win in Gyor.

The history in Bulgaria doesn’t make for good reading either with a World Cup qualifier defeat (2-1) in 1977 followed by European Qualifying defeats in 1979 (1-0) and 1987 (2-1)
 

For the 1977 game, Ireland were still in the hunt for a trip to the 1978 finals in Argentina, but the game descended into a farce with Don Givens having blatant penalty claims waved away and Frank Stapleton having a goal ruled out due to a ludicrous off-side decision.
 

There was a mass brawl in the second-half and referee Niklos Zlatonos cherry-picked four players to hand red cards to - they included Ireland’s Mick Martin and Noel Campbell.
 

That defeat and the subsequent 0-0 draw in Dublin ensured the Irish had a watching brief for the finals of 78.
 

If Ireland were lucky this week, then Jack Charlton’s team also had Irish eyes smiling on them in 1993 when Steve Staunton and Tony Cascarino scored to scramble Ireland to a 2-1 win in Albania - who
held Ireland scoreless in 2003 with that campaign also seeing an own goal by Aliaj required to give Ireland a 2-1 win at Lansdowne Road.
 

While Ireland’s well-documented history with Macedonia crushed hopes in the late 1990s, Ireland also suffered last-minute pain in 1999 when Davor Suker struck a late sucker punch to give his Croatia team a 1-0 win in Zagreb.
 

Ireland’s first trip to one of the former USSR states was a 2-0 win over Lativa in June 1993, John Aldridge and Paul McGrath netting in a 2-0 win in Riga. Aldridge has happy memories of playing against Latvia. In September ’92, he scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win atLansdowne, while he was one the mark twice in a 3-0 win in Riga in 1994 and again scored twice in the 2-1 win in Dublin. Of Aldridge’s 19 Irish goals, 8 of them were against Latvia.

Against Lithuania, a week after their first game with Latvia, Ireland needed a goal from former manager Steve Staunton to earn a 1-0 win in Vilnius. In the qualifying group for the World Cup in 1998, Ireland finished just a point ahead of Lithuania - who held them scoreless in Dublin, with a Tony Cascarino brace earning a nervous 2-1 win away.
 

The meetings with Armenia in this campaign are the only competitive qualifying meetings of the counties and in 2002 Ireland were also paired with Russia. Gary Doherty and Clinton Morrison were the goalscorers in a 4-2 defeat in Moscow; Damien Duff the scorer in the 1-1 stalemate at Lansdowne.

On their way to the play-offs in the World Cup campaign that was ended by Thierry Henry two years ago, two 2-1 wins over Georgia (one of them played in Mainz, Germany, after UEFA ruled that Ireland wouldn’t be forced to travel to the war-torn state) were key. Ireland knew all about Georgia’s hostility from 2003, however. During a 2-1 win in Tiblisi, Kevin Kilbane was struck on the arm by an open pen knife, glass from a broken vodka bottle became embedded on the pitch and missiles rained in on ‘keeper Shay Given.
 

"You expect a hostile atmosphere at these kind of places but I was really fortunate that the knife didn't do any damage," said Kilbane at the time.
 

Against Estonia, the history is straight forward. Mark Kinsella and Richard Dunne scored in a 2-0 win in Dublin, with Dunne and Matt Holland registering in a similar scoreline in Tallinn.

What odds on Dunne again becoming the Irish hero when Ireland take on Estonia next month, again travelling into the land that was once ‘Behind the Iron Curtain’ seeking a win that history has proved isn’t too easy to come by.