{"id":368480,"date":"2026-03-27T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/368480\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:32:09","slug":"ireland-v-north-macedonia-tickets-for-sale-after-prague-penalties-end-world-cup-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/368480\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland v North Macedonia tickets for sale after Prague penalties end World Cup dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Had Ireland won, they would have faced a winner-takes-all clash against Denmark in the Aviva Stadium in front of a sell-out crowd.<\/p>\n

Instead, they will face the North Macedonians in a friendly match after they also fell out of World Cup contention with a loss to the Danes.<\/p>\n

Given there is now nothing at stake, it\u2019s expected some match-goers may stay away, while others look to offload tickets.<\/p>\n

On Ticketmaster on Friday morning, more than 100 sets of tickets were being advertised for sale on the platform at prices ranging from \u20ac40 to \u20ac172.50 each.<\/p>\n

Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson summed up the feelings of a nation when asked after last night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPain,\u201d he said. \u201cJust one word, pain. I feel pain.<\/a> I feel pride in the performance of the players; they gave it their all. I feel gratitude towards the supporters who turned up and supported us through the whole game and even after.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pride being a part of that group, but personally, and I know all the players will feel pain now. Only pain, I would say.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.6m viewers on TV and online<\/p>\n

A great many of us would have been feeling that pain in real time, as figures released by RT\u00c9 suggest the TV audience peaked at 1.6m for the match<\/a> on Thursday, making it the most-watched programme in Ireland this year.<\/p>\n

The playoff also attracted 1,059,000 streams on RT\u00c9 Player, the highest number of streams for any single event on RT\u00c9 Player ever.<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, Eir said that it recorded its highest-ever TV and mobile network traffic peaks during the match. More than 3,000 Eir and GoMo customers were in Czechia for the game, a tenfold increase on usual travel volumes at this time of year, the company said.<\/p>\n

\"LoyalLoyal to the end: Republic of Ireland fans applaud the players following defeat in their 2026 Fifa World Cup play-off semi-final against Czechia. Picture: Adam Davy\/PA<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, figures from Bank of Ireland suggest a significant 4,400% increase in spending in Prague bars by Irish visitors in the last two days compared to the same period last year, with Durty Nellys, the Dubliner, and the Irish Times Bar packed out for the week.<\/p>\n

The Green Army\u2019s descent on Prague was a taste of what could have been for the Irish this summer, if they had secured World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n

The winner between the Danes and Czechs on Tuesday will have games in Guadalajara and Mexico City, as well as Atlanta, Georgia, to look forward to in June.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Irish fans would have made the trip across the Atlantic for the World Cup, with credit union loan applications now on hold and travel agents\u2019 scouring of routes to Mexico now unneeded.<\/p>\n

‘Ireland will play to win on Tuesday’<\/p>\n

All that lies ahead now in the immediate future is Tuesday\u2019s game, with Ireland captain Nathan Collins saying they will be playing to win regardless of the devastation felt after last night\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve created, the environment created with the fans and country, has been special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something we need to keep growing, to get even better at. That can help us get better on the pitch. We can push that and get fans to more tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have to play Tuesday\u2019s match; nearly a thank you to the fans for what they\u2019ve given us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation has to be the same. We have to win to keep improving as a team and country. Any match we play at home is a big game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Had Ireland won, they would have faced a winner-takes-all clash against Denmark in the Aviva Stadium in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2957,61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-368480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}