Republic of Ireland v Poland Football Results

The Republic of Ireland has played Poland more often in friendly matches than any other international football team [1].

The two countries have played each other 26 times, 23 of which were friendlies, stretching right back to 1938. The first meeting between Ireland and Poland took place at the Military Stadium in Warsaw on the 22nd of May 1938. A crowd of 40,000 watched the Irish take a 6-0 trouncing from the Poles. Four goals from Piontek and two from Wodars gave a comfortable win to the home side. Somewhat bizarrely a claim by the Irish that the ball was too soft led to a change of the ball at half time. It didn’t help the Irish performance though as they conceded three goals in each half. The Irish team on the day included the great Jackie Carey of Manchester United.

It was not until the twentieth meeting of the two teams in 1991 that they took to the field against each other in a competitive match. It was a Euro 1992 qualifier at Lansdowne Road (now the Aviva Stadium) on the 1st of May 1991. A very strong Irish team, under Jack Charlton, could only manage a 0-0 draw.

The Irish team on the day was; Packie Bonner, Denis Irwin, Steve Staunton, Paul McGrath, David O’Leary, Kevin Moran, Ray Houghton, Andy Townsend, Kevin Sheedy, Niall Quinn, and John Aldridge. Bernie Slaven and Tony Cascarino came on as second-half substitutes.

The second competitive match between Ireland and Poland took place almost six months later in Poznan, again in the Euro 1992 qualification campaign. Despite leading 3-1, through goals from Paul McGrath, Andy Townsend and Tony Cascarino and with just 15 minutes remaining, the Poles rallied to snatch a 3-3 draw. This late slip-up effectively meant that Ireland would not qualify for the Euro 1992 finals. A win would have ensured that Ireland would have qualified ahead of England on goal difference.

[1] In his book The Team That Jack Built Paul Rowan suggests that the FAI matches against Poland were arranged for the personal commercial imperatives of some FAI officials rather than for football reasons.

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