Following the World Cup, the Republic of Ireland players returned as heroes. No one expected them to qualify in the first place but defeated Holland and Portual to reach the finals. There they came through a group containing Cameroon and Germany before unluckily being knocked out by Spain on penalties.

With a very young squad including the likes of Damien Duff and Robbie Keane they will definately improve every year and qualifying for Euro 2004 should be a realistic target. Although they didn't get off to the best of starts they are back on track.