The Slovakia national football team represents Slovakia in international football and is controlled by the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) (Slovak: Slovenský futbalový zväz; SFZ). Slovakia are one of the newest national football teams in the world, alongside their neighbours the Czech Republic, whom they originally both formed the Czechoslovakia national football team, until the dissolution of the unified state in 1993. Slovakia maintains its own national side that competes in all major professional tournaments. The majority of Slovakia's home matches are held at Štadión Pasienky. With friendlies sometimes played at club stadiums.
Slovakia qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 after winning their qualifying group despite two defeats against Slovenia, and progressed beyond the group stage after a 3-2 win against Italy, before bowing out of the tournament after a 2-1 defeat in the second round against eventual runners-up the Netherlands. It was the first time the team have ever played in a major football competition, after playing every FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign since 1998 and every UEFA European Football Championship qualifying campaign since 1996, after a 50 year absence from international football due to representing part of the Czechoslovakia team. They did come close to securing a berth at the 2006 finals in Germany, after finishing second in their group ahead of Russia and behind Portugal, before drawing Spain in their qualification play-off, in which the Slovaks lost by a wide margin on aggregate. The team have achieved some noteworthy results, however, such as the aforementioned win over the then title holders Italy at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and a 1-0 win against Russia in September 2010 which helped the team reach their best ever position of 16th in the FIFA World Rankings.
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents the nation of Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010.
The team made its debut at the 1924 Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals. Between 1924 and 1936, the team competed as the Irish Free State and from then until 1950, it was referred to by the FAI as Éire or Ireland.[citation needed] In 1953, FIFA decreed that for competitive matches in tournaments that both Irish teams may enter, the FAI team would be officially called the Republic of Ireland while the IFA team was to be named Northern Ireland (The IFA continued to use the name "Ireland" until 1970 for non-FIFA competitions).[citation needed]
Under the guidance of Jack Charlton and his successor Mick McCarthy, the team enjoyed its most successful era, qualifying for Euro 1988, reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup in their first ever appearance at the finals, and making the last 16 at both the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.
Watch match Slovakia vs Ireland online live stream 12-10-2010
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