Football in Ireland is not the most developedsporting direction in the country. However, given the fact that in the British Isles this sport is literally legendary, it is loved there even in spite of the fact that football players can not achieve impressive results in the international arena. But this does not mean that the Irish are full outsiders. Ireland's football has experienced not only a fall, but also ups. Further, more on this.
The national team of Ireland for a long time is notrepresented generally no 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 qualifications first to the World Championships, and then, from 1960, when the European Championship was held, and to the European Championships. However, Ireland's 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 national teamIreland was qualified for the first time and went to the European Championship - but could not leave the group. In 1990, the Irish continued their success, having achieved the best result to date in history - they reached the quarterfinals of the World Championship, where they lost to the Italians. Since then, the Irish have twice hit the final of the World Championships, in 1994 and 2002, but both times flew to 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 Irish went to the group stage at the European championships.
Football Ireland gave the world many outstandingplayers in different periods of time, however, personalities were not enough to achieve serious success in team sports. Nevertheless, it is worth noting some of the record holders from this country. For example, striker Robbie Keane was known to the whole world - and he became the record holder of the national team of Ireland in the number of matches played for her - 146 times 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 on his account. As for the goals scored, there is also no equal to Keenu - he scored 68 goals in his 146 games. Here he does not even have a particular competition - the closest thing to Keane is Frank Stapleton, who scored just 24 goals. And he acted twenty years earlier than Robbie.
