The Five Most Far-Flung Irish Football Away Days Of The 21st Century
Carla Ward's Girls in Green have one of their biggest tests yet on Friday, as they take on Kazakhstan in the World Cup playoff semi-final first leg in Astana, one of the most far flung venues in recent Irish football history. Though Ireland are heavily favoured to come through this tie, the travel involved is but one of the huge challenges facing Carla Ward's team in navigating the Kazakhstan test.
Recommended Friday's game in Astana is fast approaching, and it got us thinking: surely it must be the furthest distance Ireland have ever travelled for an away game? We've done the research, and present to you the top five furthest distances the Irish national football teams have travelled for away days in the 21st century.
Ireland's furthest European away days Criteria: We are only including competitive games, so the numerous friendlies in the USA and Canada are excluded We've excluded games from major tournaments as these fall under different criteria (plus, the top four would all be from the 2002 World Cup) We've measured all distances as the crow flies from the centre of the pitch in the Aviva Stadium to the centre of the pitch in the opposition venue 5. Yerevan, Armenia Sargsyan Stadium, 4,034km from Dublin June 2022: Armenia 1-0 Ireland MNT (UEFA Nations League) September 2025: Armenia 2-1 Ireland MNT (World Cup qualifier) The site of two of the most infamous defeats in recent Irish football history (and there's plenty of competition).
A shock 1-0 Nations League defeat in 2022 was one of the true low points of Stephen Kenny's reign (and there was plenty of competition), but it was trumped by last year's dour World Cup qualifying defeat. Irish fans trekked in their droves to Yerevan to witness a lifeless Irish showing that ended in a stunning 2-1 defeat andcalls for Heimir Hallgrímsson's head.
Itfelt like a true low pointfor Irish football, and few could have foreseen at that moment how that campaign would end in Budapest a mere two months later. As always, the Irish fanbase earned plenty of praise from their hosts, as theyclassily applauded the victors after one of the most famous wins in Armenia's history.
Baku, Azerbaijan Baku Olympic Stadium, 4,374km from Dublin October 2021: Azerbaijan 0-3 Ireland MNT (World Cup qualifier) The 1-0 Yerevan defeat under Kenny was especially deflating as it followed by far the strongest 9 months of his tenure. Between October and November 2021, Ireland won three out of four (the fourth being a 0-0 draw against Portugal), with an aggregate score of 10-0 in Ireland's favour.
Bar stifling Ronaldo and Portugal in Dublin, the biggest challenge of that period was the cross-Europe venture to Azerbaijan. Small parts of the country may fall in the continent, but the capital city's claim to being in Europe is especially dubious.
Even if the opposition were not the most challenging, Ireland rose to the challenge posed by the travel. Goals from Callum Robinson (2) and Chiedozie Ogbene saw Ireland run out 3-0 winners en route to restoring some pride to their World Cup campaign.
Tehran, Iran Azadi Stadium, 4,805km from Dublin November 2001: Iran 1-0 Ireland MNT (World Cup playoff; Ireland won 2-1 on aggregate) The game that secured Ireland's place at the 2002 World Cup wasone of the most notorious in Irish football history. Mick McCarthy's troops qualified for the playoffs having finished 2nd in their group, but were the last team drawn from the pot at the playoff draw, meaning they were consigned to an intercontinental tie against an Asian side.