Republic of Ireland V Italy - Saturday, 10th October 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

[christo]

Donkey John MOTM

Was solid until the error for the goal, would've maybe picked Lawrence myself, wasn't very many stand out players tonight though

[Crosby87]

have our work cut out for us now...which we knew we would but.....
Boy i dont know.

[Ambaiste!]

Balls anyway, that's it for us, never in a million years will we get through via the playoff.

[Crosby87]

And of course what is more Irish than Steve Perry and Journey seeing off the fans:rolleyes:

[A face]

Ref was a patriot, we will be runners up for sure now. Some good spells for the team at times, but not great .... i dunno, we dont deserve to top the group with our performances really

[shaneker]

Lads, matched the world champions for points head-to-head. Hurts like hell, but...

Pride.

Proud to be Irish.

[Maroon 7]

How many times have we led games in qualifying only to not hold onto it?

Too many for me to want to check anyway.

[A face]

And of course what is more Irish than Steve Perry and Journey seeing off the fans:rolleyes:

The DJ needs shooting, Óle Óle Óle FFS ..... brutal, and i was saying that before the game even started. Brutal, you cant blame the Óle brigade with that stuff

[Noelys Guitar]

Very happy with our performance. Should have won the game and very surprised we continued to attack after the second goal. We can get through the play offs against any team.

[DotTV]

Good performance. Obviously would have been great to win but honestly couldnt see Italy dropping points to Cyprus. Trust Trap! We're on the way!

[Ambaiste!]

In case anyone's interested, the Italian commentators were gushing about Lawrence and reckoned McGeady should be playing at a higher level than Scotland and should be scoring more goals for Ireland. Thought the sides were well matched and Lippi is now saying that the crowd made it difficult for Italy.

[The Legend]

I like Lawrence, and I also think Best will grow into an important player.

[Closed Account 2]

Well no one on a yellow needs to be risked for the Montenegro game and I would be tempted to put out a reserve / fringe team.

[The Legend]

Well no one on a yellow needs to be risked for the Montenegro game and I would be tempted to put out a reserve / fringe team.

Put out an entire reserve team, it doesnt matter (right?)

[cavan_fan]

In case anyone's interested, the Italian commentators were gushing about Lawrence and reckoned McGeady should be playing at a higher level than Scotland and should be scoring more goals for Ireland. Thought the sides were well matched and Lippi is now saying that the crowd made it difficult for Italy.

Any would be a start

[Closed Account 2]

exactly, play a reserve team... only very very very very very very very very minor consideration is the Montenegro result in a few days will be a small part / factor in seedings for future tourmanents, very small.

[as_i_say]

Balls anyway, that's it for us, never in a million years will we get through via the playoff.

couldnt disagree more, and also with dunphy-i mean what the hell is his problem. terrific performance 3 mins from beating the world champions. we can go into any play off opponent with confidence.

Dunphy-"a trvesty if we had won??" what a tool.

Andy reid should be in squad yes but he hasnt exactly performed brilliantly for us in the past either

and also listing off our great players-given-hate to say it but should have saved BOTH of those goals.

lawrence and st ledger-delighted for them and their contribution tonight, clearly love playing or us

[A face]

Whatever about the play, I think we gifted them the two goal and our two were brilliant, i am normally over critical but we did play well at times, but its Traps style of play that i dont like ..... it keeps coming back to that.

I know if we won i probably would post that but i just aint a fan. That said if we get to the World Cup then i'll shut my mouth ;)

[Ambaiste!]

couldnt disagree more, and also with dunphy-i mean what the hell is his problem. terrific performance 3 mins from beating the world champions. we can go into any play off opponent with confidence.

Dunphy-"a trvesty if we had won??" what a tool.

Andy reid should be in squad yes but he hasnt exactly performed brilliantly for us in the past either

and also listing off our great players-given-hate to say it but should have saved BOTH of those goals.

lawrence and st ledger-delighted for them and their contribution tonight, clearly love playing or us

I've said from the start that unless we qualify automatically then we will lose a playoff to a mid-ranked European side. We were ahead twice in that match, once with only three mins plus injury time remaining, and twice we lost the lead, and with it our slim chance of automatic qualification. That is a clear sign of being no good under pressure, and the play off games are nothing if not pressure games.

I hate to say it but we are doomed.

[Noelys Guitar]

couldnt disagree more, and also with dunphy-i mean what the hell is his problem. terrific performance 3 mins from beating the world champions. we can go into any play off opponent with confidence.

Dunphy-"a trvesty if we had won??" what a tool.

Andy reid should be in squad yes but he hasnt exactly performed brilliantly for us in the past either

and also listing off our great players-given-hate to say it but should have saved BOTH of those goals.

lawrence and st ledger-delighted for them and their contribution tonight, clearly love playing or us

Given certainly should have kept out the first goal. Free header was St ledger's fault but Shay should have saved a header that was hit just to his right. Surprised by that as it is not like him.

[mr.untitled]

just back from the pub here boston, very prud, bring on the playoffs!!!

[mr.untitled]

I've said from the start that unless we qualify automatically then we will lose a playoff to a mid-ranked European side. We were ahead twice in that match, once with only three mins plus injury time remaining, and twice we lost the lead, and with it our slim chance of automatic qualification. That is a clear sign of being no good under pressure, and the play off games are nothing if not pressure games.

I hate to say it but we are doomed.

ffs, that was italy, why bother with an attituide like that

[Noelys Guitar]

I've said from the start that unless we qualify automatically then we will lose a playoff to a mid-ranked European side. We were ahead twice in that match, once with only three mins plus injury time remaining, and twice we lost the lead, and with it our slim chance of automatic qualification. That is a clear sign of being no good under pressure, and the play off games are nothing if not pressure games.

I hate to say it but we are doomed.

Which side has beaten us in a competitive game recently? Italy the world champions? Bulgaria? We have nothing to fear going into these play offs. And as the resident Scotsman on Fox Soccer said last night no team will won't to draw the ROI in the play offs

[sligofan4ever]

Dissapointed by that. We did well at times, but really should've done better from the amount of posession the Italians wasted. I felt sorry for St.Ledger, I was saying all game hes done very well for his first home start and capped it off with a great header, but you could tell when the camera was on him after the game he was absolutly devasted. Great goal by Whelan aswell, can many people say they were actually expecting that :) The main thing is we're guaranteed 2nd place. The play-off seeding is a very bad idea but you never know how it could go for us. For example, Sepp Blatter wants our best teams (on paper) going through to the world cup, but in 2002 we made it too the quarter finals, while France didnt even pick up a point in the groups, so really its not always the 'better teams' that do well in The World Cup.

[Ambaiste!]

ffs, that was italy, why bother with an attituide like that


Which side has beaten us in a competitive game recently? Italy the world champions? Bulgaria? We have nothing to fear going into these play offs. And as the resident Scotsman on Fox Soccer said last night no team will won't to draw the ROI in the play offs

Italy only needed a point, they got it. We were within a few minutes of getting a win and giving ourselves a real chance of automatic qualification by putting pressure on them against Cyprus. But, we threw it away, and will do the same in the playoffs, it's the Irish way unfortunately.

[A face]

ffs, that was italy, why bother with an attituide like that


Which side has beaten us in a competitive game recently? Italy the world champions? Bulgaria? We have nothing to fear going into these play offs. And as the resident Scotsman on Fox Soccer said last night no team will won't to draw the ROI in the play offs

Lads, its just getting too hard to qualify now, its just a bit beyond us i think :mad::o

[Deckydee]

I hope not. But I cannot see us qualifing on these types of performances

[razor]

I felt sorry for St.Ledger, I was saying all game hes done very well for his first home start and capped it off with a great header, but you could tell when the camera was on him after the game he was absolutly devasted. Hard to blame him, he was at least 3 or 4 yards off Gilardino for the equaliser, gave him way to much space.

[backstothewall]

Great performance. Good result. we matched the world champions for goals, possession, chances and performance. We have a different style to them, but we by no means looked out of our depth.

Andy Reid was told it was lights out at 11. He was playing guitar at 2am, then gave the manager a mouthful of abuse. No successful manager would ever put up with that, and every other player was able to follow a simple instruction. His weight was also a symptom of his bad attitude. He will have to prove his attitude has improved, which he is doing an excellent job of with Sunderland. If he can keep his weight under control, keep his temper in check, and keep his performance levels up, he will get his chance when the manager feels the time is right, and that is how it should be. Trapatonni has won it al. Dunphy is a fool, as is Johnny Giles (an awful football manager).

[mr.untitled]

Lads, its just getting too hard to qualify now, its just a bit beyond us i think :mad::o

we are unbeaten under trap, we held the world champs at home and away, Trap has turned an average bunch of players into a good team. Nobody in the playoffs will want to draw us....believe

[MeathDrog]

All they had to do was not concede for 5 minutes, irrespective of how much they deserved the lead or how well they played until then.

John O' Shea had a great game but what the hell was he doing up forward for the last goal. A lack of cop on.

In the playoffs at least.

[strangeirish]

Replay this (http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/whelan-vs-italy) a few times, then give the negative vibes a kick up the hole. We can do it!

Yes we can!:D

[Straightstory]

Disappointed at draw tonight, but Italy probably would have beaten Cyprus anyway. Interesting to see size of crowd v Montenegro on Wed.
Don't expect us to qualify v play offs. We've been really, really lucky to get this far.

[Jicked]

Just home, couldn't believe that ending. Heartbreaking. How has Shay saved us so many times before and yet doesn't get near their two goals?? And what the hell were we doing with anything less than 11 men behind the ball in the 89th minute?! Oh well, in reality Italy would always have won the group by beating Cyrpus on Wed, and after the heartbreak tonight, watch the lads be a lot more switched on in the last minute of a playoff game if we need it. Great performance and a great night, we've come so far in two years under Trap, I'm sure we've more big nights in the next two years.

Oh and don't even bother talking about Dunphy, he's not a football analyst, he's a professional wind-up merchant. If he's not being "controversial" and talking out of his arse, he's less of a talking point and so gets less cash from his tv appearances and newspaper columns. It's fairly simple, it's not in Dunphy's financial interests to be anything other than controversial even when there's clearly no need to be.

[old git]

Very happy with our performance. Should have won the game and very surprised we continued to attack after the second goal. We can get through the play offs against any team.

what match were you watching .. we were great for 20 mins and then we let italians take over we had 2 shots on target both from set pieces we never created a chance from open play.. performance excellent for 20 mins and them seemed to switch off .. terribley disapointed we did not win game but no way we deserved to win it over 90 mins 2-1 up in 87 mins a good team should be able to hold onto ball and see out last few remaining mins to win game ... honestly think we need a bit of luck with draw for playoffs :ball:

[Jicked]

what match were you watching .. we were great for 20 mins and then we let italians take over we had 2 shots on target both from set pieces we never created a chance from open play.. performance excellent for 20 mins and them seemed to switch off .. terribley disapointed we did not win game but no way we deserved to win it over 90 mins 2-1 up in 87 mins a good team should be able to hold onto ball and see out last few remaining mins to win game ... honestly think we need a bit of luck with draw for playoffs :ball:

So what you mean to say is we dominated the World Champions for twenty minutes with a midfield that was McGeady-Whelan (Stoke) -Andrews (MK Dons two years ago) -Lawrence (Stoke). Spain could hardly muster a chance against Italy in the last European Championships when they had what most would consider one of the most creative and fluid teams in recent history. But sure when it's Ireland we should be slicing through them because Dunphy said they're not as good as they used to be?

[as_i_say]

Anyone who isnt immensely proud of what as been achieved in this group needs their head examined. 9 games unbeaten

Andrews-Blackburn, not a regular
Whelan-Stoke, not a regular
Hunt-Hull
Kilbane-Hull
Doyle-Wolves-doomed to relegation
Lawrence-Stoke
St Ledger-Middlesboro

A team mostly made up of average journeymen with a realistic chance of qualifying. Bloody superb effort.

[old git]

Great performance. Good result. we matched the world champions for goals, possession, chances and performance. We have a different style to them, but we by no means looked out of our depth.

Andy Reid was told it was lights out at 11. He was playing guitar at 2am, then gave the manager a mouthful of abuse. No successful manager would ever put up with that, and every other player was able to follow a simple instruction. His weight was also a symptom of his bad attitude. He will have to prove his attitude has improved, which he is doing an excellent job of with Sunderland. If he can keep his weight under control, keep his temper in check, and keep his performance levels up, he will get his chance when the manager feels the time is right, and that is how it should be. Trapatonni has won it al. Dunphy is a fool, as is Johnny Giles (an awful football manager).

disagree on performance after 20 mins we let italians take over , no we we matched them for possession as we kept giving them the ball and i thought they were the better team just doing enough to get a result... on andy reid drinking/ playing guitar abusing manager agree it was wrong but i am sure he has apologised for behaviuor he has also slimmed down alot.. would you rather see rowlands ( who!!) or reid coming on for final 15 mins or even starting game for ireland :ball:

[da bishop]

good result,decent performance.TRAP has worked a wonders with the players available to him,dunphy and co a disgrace,what an idiot he was tonight.we have one world class player GIVEN,and given the amount he had to do tonight was hardly his best performance.short memory some people,but i still have a 5....2 ,DRUBBING IN MY HEAD,from times past and i dont want to see us back there.

[old git]

So what you mean to say is we dominated the World Champions for twenty minutes with a midfield that was McGeady-Whelan (Stoke) -Andrews (MK Dons two years ago) -Lawrence (Stoke). Spain could hardly muster a chance against Italy in the last European Championships when they had what most would consider one of the most creative and fluid teams in recent history. But sure when it's Ireland we should be slicing through them because Dunphy said they're not as good as they used to be?

no we dominated because we got stuck in worked hard passed the ball around and then switched off or maybe italy got back into game because midfield of mc geady/ whelan / andrews / lawrence are not good enough to dominate intl teams . but be honest we have not got to many options in this department.. don't bother with dunphys rants and opionions.. before game i would have been delighted with draw just extremly disapointed we threw away 3 points after leading twice and not playing well :ball:

[Kildare Lad]

just back from the pub here boston, very prud, bring on the playoffs!!!

Ya can tell;)

[Murfinator]

You could decompose all bar a few elite teams down to that. Take Englands first team, they have a below average premiership keeper, an aston villa reserve striker and half the spurs bench on their first team. Having a team composed of strong bottom half of the EPL players is no longer a negative like it was. Scotland/Wales/NI would kill to have that luxury.

[drummerboy]

I'd have settled for that before the game. Dunphy just got a hump because he had a very large wedge on a 0-0 draw and has lost his money. Considering the limited ability of the players at our disposal Trap has more than earned his money. I would certainly consider leaving out all the players on yellow cards, as I think they carry on into the playoffs. So that would mean Given, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady and Best are all out of the game on Wednesday. O'Shea could play in midfield with Kelly at RF, call up Andy Reid to play alongside him. Hunt for McG.

[Fizzer]

I've said from the start that unless we qualify automatically then we will lose a playoff to a mid-ranked European side. We were ahead twice in that match, once with only three mins plus injury time remaining, and twice we lost the lead, and with it our slim chance of automatic qualification. That is a clear sign of being no good under pressure, and the play off games are nothing if not pressure games.

I hate to say it but we are doomed.

You're wrong we're gonna qualify

[theneutral]

Would have taken a draw before hand but it felt like a defeat at the end, why oh why were italy able to break against us and score a goal they might have gotten if we were chasing the game and leaving gaps but ffs we were winning, where was the two banks of 4? and minimal personel up front, how very naieve of us and most un-Trap like!
Hindsight is a great thing and i have nothing but respect for all Kilbane has done for us but IMO he has cost us 6 points in this group campaign, Bulgaria home and away and then not coming inside tonight and cleaning up like any full back worth his sault would, but as i said, Hindsight nd all that! So close!

Greece in the play offs please! It wont be pretty but its our best hope!

[mr.untitled]

Ya can tell;)

:)...

[geysir]

Close to stealing it. Most disappointing not to hold onto that lead for the last few minutes.
Hard working effective performance. Well pleased with Lawrence, looked like he was on his 50th cap.
On to the playoffs with a game to spare, luxury.
Well deserved plaudits to the management and the squad.

[sheao]

I said before the game that a draw would have been a great result and i'm still delighted with that,even though it was dissapointing to go ahead twice and not hang on to our lead. Defending set pieces is our biggest downfall and it proved again tonight. Trappatoni has done a great job with a more or less average squad to put us into a really good position to qualify, even if it is by the playoffs. Lets hope we can get a good draw Monday week and that we will see the Irish out in South Africa next year.

[Razors left peg]

my biggest worry going into the playoffs is conceeding the away goal, we dont look capable not conceeding a goal. Italys 2nd was like a kick in the stomach

[tricky_colour]

Would have seemed so much better if we had snatched a draw in the dying minutes.
If the world champions cannot beat us whio can?
We have a wealth of players to pick from too.
S.A here we come!!