After enjoying a great run in the 2002 world cup finals, the Irish set their sights out for Euro 2004. Their start to the qualification campaign did not go according to plan as they suffered two defeats in their opening matches, against Switzerland at home in Dublin and a defeat against Russia in Moscow. Mick McCarthy left the managerial post shortly after for Brian Kerr to take over in charge. The Irish travelled to Georgia in March 2003 and won the tie 2-1 however they followed that result up with an awful goalless draw against European football minnows, Albania in Tirana. They met the Albanians and Greece in Dublin at the beginning of June and won both matches, with qualification now seeming slightly possible again. They knew they needed a minimum of four points from their last two matches in order to qualify, however that even proved to be too much for the Irish as they stumbled to a 1-1 draw at home against Russia and a miserable 2-0 defeat against Switzerland in Basle. In preparing for the 2006 world cup qualification matches, the Irish played a string of friendlies, including a 2-1 home win against the Czech Republic and a 1-0 away win against Holland in Amsterdam. They kick started their world cup qualifiers with a fine 3-0 win in Dublin against Cyprus and followed that up with a decent away draw against Switzerland. A fine 0-0 draw in Paris against the mighty France was followed up by a 2-0 expected victory against the Faroe Islands in Dublin, Robbie Keane breaking the record as Irelands all time top goal scorer. Successive draws at home and away against Israel was followed up by a priceless 2-0 victory over the Faroe Islands in Torshvan. They suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against France in Dublin which all but ended any hopes of qualifying. Steve Staunton was installed as the new manager of the Republic of Ireland in 2006 and got off to a fine start as the Irish defeated Sweden 3-0 in Dublin. The Irish had a decent squad at that point, including Robbie Keane, Shay Given, John O’Shea, Clinton Morrison, Richard Dunne, Liam Miller and Steve Finnan.