IRELAND travel to the Algarve to meet no-hopers Gibraltar as their Euro 2024 dreams finally died on Friday.
Under-fire manager Stephen Kenny is probably delighted the game is not in Dublin after another truly dismal campaign effectively ended with a defeat from Greece.
The hapless former Dunfermline manager appears to have stumbled from one disastrous result to the next and they have just three points from their first six games in the group.
Even accounting for a very tough group involving France and the Netherlands, that's a truly dismal return and no wonder Kenny refused to discuss his future after the game.
In Kenny’s 27 competitive matches in charge, they have yielded just five victories – against Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Scotland, Armenia and Gibraltar.
It's remarkable he's hung around this long and the atmosphere around the camp would turn toxic with anything other than a resounding win against Gibraltar.
The Iberian minnows lost four goals in the first half of their friendly last week in Wales, but at least recovered to keep the score at 4-0 in a damage limitation exercise.
They have failed to score a goal and have a goal difference of -17. Even Kenny's Ireland beat them in June…
How the bookies view it
Ireland are hovering around the 1/20 mark for accas backers with Paddy Power going 1/16.
Gibraltar can be backed at 50/1 with the same firm and the draw is 14/1.
Recent head to heads
Ireland won 3-0 in the summer in Dublin, but they needed an injury time goal to make the scoreline respectable.It wasalso goalless at the Aviva at the interval.
Players to watch
Evan Ferguson is Ireland's great hope and this should be a penalty kick for him. He's not scored since a hat-trick for Brighton sank Newcastle United at the start of last month. That's reflected in the prices though and he is 3/5 to score with Betfred.
Lee Casciaro is still going strong for Gibraltar at the age of 42. The veteran striker was an unused sub against Wales and could start against the Irish. He is 9/1 to score with Betfred.
Anything else catch the eye?
Perhaps with the pressure being off, Ireland could finally reach their potential, but the cold hard facts are they look incapable of battering anyone under its present management team.
Like in the first game in Dublin, it could take the Irish time to put this to bead. Take bet365's 20/21 on the second half being the highest scoring half.
It's 11/4 with the same firm for Ireland not to score in the first half and, as stated, they couldn't manage that at home.
Having said that, surely they will at least win and it's worth backing the 10/11 on Ireland winning and under 3.5 goals at bet365
This Euro 2024 match between Gibraltar and Ireland will be played on Oct 16, 2023 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Gibraltar vs Ireland prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
