Those cocky Swedes are at it again. Mere days after 84 percent of the deluded nation professed their certainty that Sweden would beat Ireland on Monday night, their leading newspaper has published rankings which place the Republic of Ireland three spots lower than the Swedes... with Northern Ireland ranked as the worst team in the tournament.
One Swedish newspaper might do as much for uniting this Ireland of ours as an entire generation of politicians.
The rankings, published in Aftonbladet, ranked the Republic of Ireland as the 19th-rated team in the tournament and Northern Ireland as the 24th.
This flies in the face of the official FIFA world rankings - which has the Northern Ireland ranked at the lofty heights of 25th, while the Republic of Ireland are ranked in 33rd position.
The Swedes, meanwhile, languish back in 35th place.
Perhaps most insulting though, was the way both teams were described in the detailed profile of each team.
[The Republic of Ireland] combine atypical ball control with traditional route one football.
The former makes them difficult to read , the latter enabled them to take four points against Germany in qualifying. They have no great generation of players, but they might just have enough to fight for a playoff spot.
That's bad enough, but Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill should have no shortage of material for his dressing-room wall.
We can conclude that this is a mediocre football team that will need massive luck to survive the group stage.
They know what they can and they will play their own way: Low, physical , simple and straight. And then they go home.
Plenty of ammunition there lads.
