We are officially re-entering the football silly season, with lots of friendly matches coming up and of course the all important final games of the UEFA Nations League.

Ok, so it's not that important, but to be fair it's served up some decent games to us. It has also contributed to some premature greying of club managers hair, but sure they get paid enough to buy a bottle of hair dye, so they'll be grand..

The Contest

Can you name the first goal scorer in the Ireland vs Denmark match on Monday 19th November at 19:45.

Now, I assume most of you guys are maybe not too familiar with many of the players on each team, so here is a look at the starting teams from their most recent UEFA League match last month.

Ireland

Denmark

The rules

  1. You must predict the name of the first goal scorer in the comments below before kick off at 19:45 on 19th November.
  2. If more than one person guesses correctly, the pot will be shared between the winners.

Previous meetings between the sides

03 Oct 1956 Republic of Ireland v Denmark W 2-1 FIFA World Cup

02 Oct 1957 Denmark v Republic of Ireland W 0-2 FIFA World Cup

04 Dec 1968 Republic of Ireland v Denmark D 1-1 FIFA World Cup

27 May 1969 Denmark v Republic of Ireland L 2-0 FIFA World Cup

15 Oct 1969 Republic of Ireland v Denmark D 1-1 FIFA World Cup

24 May 1978 Denmark v Republic of Ireland D 3-3 UEFA European Championship

02 May 1979 Republic of Ireland v Denmark W 2-0 UEFA European Championship

14 Nov 1984 Denmark v Republic of Ireland L 3-0 FIFA World Cup

13 Nov 1985 Republic of Ireland v Denmark L 1-4 FIFA World Cup

14 Oct 1992 Denmark v Republic of Ireland D 0-0 FIFA World Cup

28 Apr 1993 Republic of Ireland v Denmark D 1-1 FIFA World Cup

27 Mar 2002 Republic of Ireland v Denmark W 3-0 International Friendly

22 Aug 2007 Denmark v Republic of Ireland W 0-4 International Friendly

11 Nov 2017 Denmark v Republic of Ireland D 0-0 FIFA World Cup

14 Nov 2017 Republic of Ireland v Denmark L 1-5 FIFA World Cup

13 Oct 2018 Republic of Ireland v Denmark D 0-0 UEFA Nations League

Ireland just pip it here with 5 wins, with Denmark registering 4 wins, and 7 games ending in a draw. But, the matches freshest in fans mind is the 5-1 drubbing they gave us in the world cup qualifier this time last year. I was at that match, and it was tough to watch.

My verdict

source - www.goal.com

This one is the classic head vs heart scenario. As an Irishman my heart wants to say we will win against the odds, but my head simply wont allow it. This could be a case of damage limitation, and I would be surprised at anything better than a two goal loss to the Danes.

If Wales were to beat Denmark, it would mean that a win for us in Copenhagen would mean we retain B status for next time, but I just cant see that happening to be honest. the very best we can hope for is a draw, and that is pushing it. We quite simply don't have good enough players at the moment.

The only way we can get something from the game is to shackle Mr Eriksen, and we have seen in the recent past that this is no easy task.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read my post and best of luck with your selection if you have taken part.

Peace Out.