On all three occasions that Ireland have gone to the FIFA World Cup, the Boys in Green have managed to get out of the group.
It's getting to the tournament that has long been the problem for us however. It's something Scotland have experience of - but only really in the last 20 years.
Not since 1998 when they finished the World Cup in France on the low of a 3-0 defeat to Morocco has the Tartan Army graced world football's premiere competition.
But before the turn of the Millennium, Scotland rarely had trouble getting to World Cups, qualifying eight times in total including five in a row from 1974 to 1990.
Yet each time, Scotland failed to advance past the first round, including three times in a row when it was goal difference that cost sides packed with talents like Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen (coincidentally all European Cup winners with Liverpool) and ex-Manchester United midfielder Gordon Strachan, just to name a few.
Eight World Cups and never past the group stage. Scottish football commentator and author Archie MacPherson takes us through Scotland's glorious failures at World Cups on @teamthirtythree tonight pic.twitter.com/W1ZscUm7Lq
— Raf Diallo (@Raftastico) May 8, 2018
So what went wrong? Well, it's detailed in a new book by Archie MacPherson, the legendary Scottish commentator, whose name will be well known to fans of Trainspotting! (He re-voiced his commentary of the Archie Gemmill World Cup wonder goal from 1978 for the film so that it could be intertwined with a different sort of climactic scene).
Archie joined me on this week's Team 33 to take us through Scotland's World Cups from 1958 when the Munich Air Disaster prevented then-Manchester United manager Matt Busby from coaching the Scottish team to Mexico 86 when Alex Ferguson took charge as caretaker of a squad that included a distracted Souness, and all the way to the ignominy of 1998 and the chastening '78 when a side fancied to go all the way once again fell at the first round barrier.
You can listen back to the full interview with Archie MacPherson on the podcast player or stream/download on iTunes:
Recent interviews on Team 33 include former Man United cult hero Andrei Kanchelskis, ex-England international Carlton Palmer, former Newcastle and Everton left back Alessandro Pistone, Chelsea legends Bobby Tambling and Paddy Mulligan, Dutch legend Johan Neeskens, ex-England striker Darius Vassell, Liverpool legend David Fairclough, former Ireland midfielder Mark Kinsella and former Everton forward Tomasz Radzinski. Plus our in-depth chats with Tony Coton, Packie Bonner, Nobby Solano, Ron Atkinson and Alan Curbishley are still available on iTunes. You can find them all in one place by subscribing to Team 33 on iTunes.
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