Following Saturday's draw in Paris the Republic of Ireland now know their fate for next summer's European Championships, and the attention of the thousands of supporters planning to travel to France now turns to trying to secure tickets to watch Martin O'Neill's boys in action.
Ireland will face Belgium, Italy and Sweden in Group E at Euro 2016, a draw O’Neill has said “couldn’t be tougher,” but while progression to the knockout stages looks to be an uphill task the Irish fans are sure to be arriving in France in their droves come June.
Ireland’s campaign begins against Sweden on June 13th at the Stade de France, before they take on Belgium in Bordeaux on June 18th and finish the group against the Azzuri in Lille on June 22nd.
But how will Ireland fans get their hands on tickets and most importantly, how many will be on sale?
Fans will be asked to register their details on the official Uefa website at uefa.com/uefaeuro/finals/ticketing/index.html
Across the tournament’s 51 fixtures roughly 2.5 million tickets are available, and Uefa have said around 75 per cent of these are intended to go to supporters. Breakdown The breakdown for how the 2.5 million tickets will be distributed is as follows:
General Public: 42 per cent (1 million tickets)
Supporters of participating teams: 32 per cent (800,000 tickets)
Commercial partners: 12 per cent
Hospitality: 6 per cent
Football family: 3 per cent
Host city and national authorities: 2 per cent
Broadcast partners: 1 per cent
VIP guests: 1 per cent
The one million tickets for public sale have already been allocated following a ballot which took place between June 10th and July 10th.
The ballot for tickets which have been allocated to Ireland supporters opens this morning at 11am and closes on Monday, January 18th at 11am. Fans can apply for up to four tickets per match, and tickets are priced in four categories, ranging in price from €25 to €145.
Tickets for disabled supporters will be sold at category four prices, which is €25 per ticket for the group games, regardless of whereabouts in each stadium they are situated.
With 32 per cent of tickets allocated to supporters from each nation, this means for each game Ireland fans will receive 16 per cent of the stadium’s capacity. Allocations So, for each Group E game the Republic of Ireland is likely to receive the following allocations:
Rep Ireland v Sweden
June 13th
Stade de France (81,338)
Allocation: 13,000
Rep of Ireland v Belgium
June 18th
Stade de Bordeaux (42,000)
Allocation: 6,700
Rep Ireland v Italy
June 22nd
Stade Pierre-Mauroy (50,000)
Allocation: 8,000
However, if Ireland fans miss out on tickets in both the public ballot and the national ballot, there is still an opportunity to secure tickets next March and April through Uefa’s official ticket resale portal, which enables supporters to purchase tickets from other fans.
The opponents
Belgium
The Belgians may be slightly flattered by their World number one status but they are not up there at the top of the pile for no reason at all. Marc Wilmots has quite a few of the European game’s most exciting talent at his disposal and many people were predicting before the World Cup last summer that the experience of playing there would make them genuine title contenders this time around.
In Brazil they won group games against Algeria, South Korea and Russia before beating the United States after extra time in the first knockout round. Ultimately, they ran out of steam in the quarter-finals where they lost 1-0 to Argentina.
To qualify for this, the first European Championships they have reached without hosting in 32 years, they won Group H, ahead of Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina but Chris Coleman’s side took four points from them while, like the Republic of Ireland, they drew 1-1 in Zenica.
They tended to thump the group’s weaker sides, however, with Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne bagging five goals apiece from attacking midfield roles. Romelu Lukaku’s form at Everton suggests that they won’t have to carry the burden by themselves in France and there is plenty of strength elsewhere with Chelsea’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Manchester City’s centre back Vincent Kompany key figures in a very good defence.
Record against the Republic of Ireland: Feb 25th, 1934 – World Cup qualifying Republic of Ireland 4 Belgium 4 Oct 15th, 1980 – World Cup qualifying: Republic of Ireland 1 Belgium 1 March 25th, 1981 World Cup qualifying Belgium 1 Republic of Ireland 0 Sept 10th, 1986 Euro 88 qualifying Belgium 2 Republic of Ireland 2 April 29th, 1987 Euro 88 qualifying Republic of Ireland 0 Belgium 0 Oct 29th, 1997 World Cup playoff, first leg Republic of Ireland 1 Belgium 1 Nov 15th, 1997 World Cup (playoff, second) Belgium 2 Republic of Ireland 1.
Overall competitive record P7 W0 D5 L2 F9 A11.
Record including friendlies P13 W3 D5 L5 F20 A25.
Italy
This may not be seen as one of the great Italian sides but they got through qualifying in a pretty businesslike manner over the course of the last four games, all won, and may have started to show signs that they can make an impact at the finals next summer.
Under new coach Antonio Conte, they started with a solid 2-0 win in Oslo and the only real black mark on their record by the end was that they drew with Croatia both home and away. Two other points were dropped, in a 2-2 draw in Sofia but they finished the campaign as group winners
There is plenty of experience in the side, especially at the back where Gianluigi Buffon remains a key figure and the likes of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci are again likely to feature prominently but goals were something of a problem despite the fact that they managed at least one in every game.
Conte has tweaked his tactics in the hope of addressing the problem, committing more bodies to attack and introducing Southampton’s Graziano Pelle who has done well since getting his chance, finishing the campaign as the team’s top scorer with three, and he looks set now to play a big part in the finals.
The two sides have quite a few times in recent years and Ireland didn’t fare too badly against them under Giovanni Trapattoni.
Record against the Republic of Ireland: Dec 8th, 1970 Euro qualifying Italy 3 Republic of Ireland 0 May 10th, 1971 Euro qualifying Republic of Ireland 1 Italy 2 June 30th, 1990 Italia'90 Republic of Ireland 0 Italy 1 June 18th, 1994 USA'94 Republic of Ireland 1 Italy 0 April 4th, 2009 World Cup qualifying Italy 1 Republic of Ireland 1 Oct 10th, 2009 World Cup qualifying Republic of Ireland 2 Italy 2 June 18th, 2012 Euro 2012 Italy 2 Republic of Ireland 0
Overall competitive record P7 W1 D2 L4 F5 A11
Record including friendlies P13 W2 D3 A8 F9 A20
Sweden
The Swedes had to qualify by way of the playoffs after losing to Russia away then, more resoundingly, Austria at home at the start of September but their games against Denmark perfectly highlighted the concern that they will cause the Irish management team with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring three of four goals over two legs to propel them to the finals.
Those brought his tally from the 10 games he played to 11 and so if it remains a little unkind to suggest that the Swedes are a one man team, it is still hard to overstate the PSG striker’s importance to Erik Hamren’s side.
If he can be contained then there is little else in a solid but largely unexceptional squad to strike fear into opponents. The likes of Sebastian Larsson, Jonas Olsson and Martin Olsson will be familiar to the Irish players from the Premier League and their style of play - with the full-backs looking to overlap in a 4-4-2 formation - may suit Ireland well enough too.
Neither manager will need to be told how much may come to depend on the meeting between the two sides in their opening group game and it will be interesting to see whether, with the bigger names to come, they feel they can afford to walk away with a draw.
Record against the Republic of Ireland: June 2nd, 1949 World Cup qualifying Sweden 3 Republic of Ireland 1 Nov 13th, 1949 World Cup qualifying Republic of Ireland 1 Sweden 3 Oct 14th, 1970 Euro qualifying Republic of Ireland 1 Sweden 1 Oct 28th, 1970 Euro qualifying Sweden 1 Republic of Ireland 0 Mar 22nd, 2013 World Cup qualifying Sweden 0 Republic of Ireland 0 Sept 6th, 2013 World Cup qualifying Republic of Ireland 1 Sweden 2
Overall competitive record P6 W0 D2 L4 F4 A10
Record including friendlies P10 W3 D2 L5 F13 A16
