Republic of Ireland – Uruguay (International Friendlies)
The Republic of Ireland national team and Uruguay national team will face each other this Sunday at Aviva Stadium, at Dublin, in a friendly match. The home team arrive here prepared for their 3rd friendly match since 2017’s beginning, losing the two already played, and need to return to the qualification matches for the 2018 World Cup at their top form on order to proceed in the competition. Uruguay, on their turn, will play their first friendly match of the year, with their next official match only happening at the end of August, against Argentina, having plenty of time to be prepared until then.
Republic of Ireland are getting ready for their 3rd friendly match of the year, having lost against Iceland and Mexico. The Green Army need to get a positive result here in order to get motivated for the upcoming qualification matches for the 2018 World Cup, where they are getting very positive results in Group D, being 2nd placed with the same 11 points than leader Serbia, both without having been defeated in all the 5 Group D rounds. The Irish squad doesn’t have such talented players like Uruguay, but are a very united and aggressive team that always fights until the end. 19 of the 20 players called up for this match play in the Premier League or in the Championship, with only Ronan Curtis playing in Ireland for Derry City.
In their last 5 official games, Republic of Ireland has a record of 2 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats. This sequence of results started with 1-3 victory over Macedonia. This result was followed by a 0-1 victory over Austria, a 0-0 draw against Wales, a 0-1 defeat against Iceland, and in their last clash, a 3-1 defeat against Mexico.
Probable Lineup: Randolph – Christie, Duffy, Boyle and Kevin Long – Gleeson, Hourihane, O’Dowda and Horgan – McClean – Curtis.
Uruguay, on their turn, have only played two official games since 2017’s beginning, both for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, losing against Brasil and Peru. The Uruguayans were in great form in the 2018 World Cup qualification rounds and even lead the table during several rounds but, more recently, they have suffered a break in their form and dropped to the 3rd spot, being now obliged to recover they good form once again. This is a very talented squad with some known players, such as Muslera, Maxi Pereira, Giménez, Cáceres, Cavani, Godín and Luis Suárez, although the last two were not called up for this match. La Celeste are a very strong team when attacking, although they are not showing it lately.
In their last 5 games, Uruguay has a record of 1 victory, 1 draw and 3 defeats. This sequence of results started with 2-2 draw against Colombia. This result was followed by a 2-1 defeat against Equator, a 3-1 defeat against Chile, a 1-4 defeat against Brazil, and in their last clash, a 2-1 defeat against Peru.
Probable Lineup: Muslera – Maxi Pereira, Giménez, Cáceres and Silva – Vecino, González, Sánchez and Rodríguez – Cavani and Rolán.
Uruguay has won the only direct clash played in the last 40 years.
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Republic of Ireland
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2-3 |
Uruguay
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Friendly match 2011
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Both teams need desperately to find their better form, especially Republic of Ireland who will play the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in just a few days, so it is expected a match with both teams focused in getting a good result here.
