Flurry of friendlies before Euro showdown

Martin O’Neill will have five friendly games in which to fine-tune Ireland’s preparations for the start of their European Championship qualifying campaign in September.

FAI chief executive John Delaney yesterday confirmed plans to play two games in the US in early June, following on from home and away meetings with, respectively, Turkey and Italy in late May.

And he added that the intention is to play a further friendly in early September, a few days before Ireland open their Euro 2016 campaign away to Georgia on Sunday 7th of that month.