Match Night

International football kicks off again in earnest today. The big game is Ireland's away in Stuttgart versus Germany. We go more in hope than expectation but, as I have said before a draw is not out of the question. And we all know that we enjoy playing in Stuttgart. In the same group John Toshack's Wales travel to Teplice to face the Czech Republic. It would be nice to see both the Irish and Welsh emerge from that group but I cannot see either of us doing each other any favours to that effect.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the Scots will surprise a lot of people in the group of death, where they will have to contend with the World Cup finalists France and Italy and also Ukraine. The Scots are full of beans and intend to start been taken seriously on the international scene again. Qualification might be beyond them but they could go close. I forget who NornIron are playing but I know they have Denmark, Spain and Sweden to take care of, those countries are, at the very least nice places to visit. Meanwhile England start their long march to certain victory in Vienna in two years time with a game against Andorra. And pigs will be airborne by then too.