Post Match and looking ahead

[Stuttgart88]

I'm just disappointed we didn't take the chances we made: 3 maybe 4 clear cut ones if you include the 2 shooting chances Andrews had which he could have done better with. In fact Dunne really should have directed that second half header on target instead of glancing it to JO'S. So that's 5.

Sure France had all the play and controlled the ball well but we still had the chances and hopefully will get some more.

The way Anelka celebrated his goal suggests to me that they think the job is done. It probably is but maybe we'll get a deflected goal of our own to put the frighteners on them.

I wonder what tactical variation we may have. If it's still up for grabs with 20 mins left could we play 3 at the back? Or just tell the full backs that they're to go forward? I'd love to see a way of having McGeady, Duff, LL and Hunt all having a go at them.

[byrner01]

I'm really gutted. I just think we had a great chance here to qualify for the world cup and give everyone a great lift. But if we don't have our best players on the pitch, we are only defeating ourselves.I know we have gone on about it enough, but seating in Croke park last night that game was crying out for Mr Ireland . Someone that's not afraid to get one the ball and spray it around. And one with a good engine for tracking back getting the tackles in . I'm just frustrated i suppose that we have a player like this that does not want to play for his country, doesn't seem right at all. Anyway i don't think its over for us , its just got twice as difficult now.

[Irish_Praha]

Tough to come out being a goal down, chances for both teams were just about even.
Anyone who thinks the French were strolling around in the low gears just have not got the foggiest about how international football is played.
We played better than I expected, the players did their best against a very good team.
Considering the opposition, I'd say it's the best performance we have managed at home since beating Holland in 2001.

Fortunately we have another game, I'd expect the French to be strong enough but who knows.

That was a great result and atmosphere but contrary to common belief Ireland didn't play so geat that day. It was more of a smash and grab job. Last night I would say we played better defensively than in the Holland game, we just didn't have the luck of that day or a manager sending on 5 strikers and still only sending high balls into the box that were bread and butter stuff for Dunne and Stan.

[FarBeag]

It’s a pity. Don’t think Evra will ever make a save again like he did form Lawrence who ran himself into the ground btw. They were also very aware of us being dangerous from set pieces so never gave anything away inside their half, but it all ifs and maybes!

We have to go out all guns blazing on Wednesday from the start and see what happens. The French will be fresher as they did sod all running around but let the ball do the talking. Jesus I wish we could pass the ball like that.

Atmosphere was good but why oh why do people insist on leaving 10 minutes before a vital qualification game finishes?

[zinedineontour]

Well, that was like paying 50 snots to watch Henry and Anelka pass it to each other for 90 minuted

Hard to say it but Domenech's tactics were superior. With TH and NA playing off the stirker, but out wide, we had no idea how to stop them

Anelka gave the balla way once in 90 minutes - remarkable performance and Henry won every ball in the air

Robbie Keane is really struggling - keeps giving it away and is more interested in being hard done by than in actually playing


Men and boys

Robbie Keanes best performance for a long while in an irish shirt. His workrate was excellent and there was far less moaning and he got on with it last night. We dont have the players to play expansive football but the lads were unlucky on a couple of occasions and we are far from out of this tie.

[Irish_Praha]

Well pretty much everything has been said about Ireland's performance in the last 6 pages.

Before last nights game I would have given us a 40/60 chance of getting through. Now it's probably down to 20/80; very difficult but not impossible.
Trap has some very difficult tatical decisions to make for Wednesday.
We know we need goals but if he sends an all attacking team out it could be a disaster and we could be totally hammered by the French.
If we play a system like last night I think it will be very tight again with a draw or a 1 goal win for one of the teams but France will more than likely go through. I think Trap will just stick to the current system and hope for the best. Folan is not by any means a world class player but it's a shame we don't have him available so that we could start with a formation similar to what we were using against Italy away at the end.

I still have some hope, maybe we manage to get any early goal and then the French heads drop; but history says we will sit back and they will eventually get an equaliser.
Anyway the second tie still has some twists and turns left it in without a doubth.

[zinedineontour]

Apart from leaving Benzema on the bench:) (or was he injured?)

France def stepped it up a bit in the second half, with Evra and Sagnol more into the game.
Still France dont look any great shakes and they wont go too far in any world cup. ireland have a chance to score in Paris but it will be difficult.

Taking off Doyle was bizarre.

And from watching on TV the crowd didnt seem that good - very quiet overall - but I bet it was very different at the game?

(still - better than the Limerick crowd at the Andy lee fight - woeful!!)

The crowd last night was class best atmosphere at croke park for an ireland game. Even the lads on sunday supplement this morning from england were saying how good it was. It was far from quiet.

[bennocelt]

The crowd last night was class best atmosphere at croke park for an ireland game. Even the lads on sunday supplement this morning from england were saying how good it was. It was far from quiet.

Just my opinion, all I heard was ole ole - but you can never tell on TV:)

[noddy102]

Well pretty much everything has been said about Ireland's performance in the last 6 pages.

Before last nights game I would have given us a 40/60 chance of getting through. Now it's probably down to 20/80; very difficult but not impossible.
Trap has some very difficult tatical decisions to make for Wednesday.
We know we need goals but if he sends an all attacking team out it could be a disaster and we could be totally hammered by the French.
If we play a system like last night I think it will be very tight again with a draw or a 1 goal win for one of the teams but France will more than likely go through. I think Trap will just stick to the current system and hope for the best. Folan is not by any means a world class player but it's a shame we don't have him available so that we could start with a formation similar to what we were using against Italy away at the end.

I still have some hope, maybe we manage to get any early goal and then the French heads drop; but history says we will sit back and they will eventually get an equaliser.
Anyway the second tie still has some twists and turns left it in without a doubth.


I agree that Trap is likely to stick with his same formation and style of play, and that for any alternative would likely result in France finding many holes in our midfield and defence and getting a few more goals.

I think our best chance lies in France approaching the second leg defensively... we have been able to control the game when losing against Italy away (albeit they had 10 men), all because Italy were happy to sit on their 1-0 win. If Domenech chooses this approach (which I admit is unlikely), then maybe we have a chance.

Whatever happens on Wednesday, we have to get an early goal... that much is true.

[geysir]

Whatever happens on Wednesday, we have to get an early goal... that much is true.
Obviously we need a goal but we are not under pressure that it has to be an early goal.

There is not much for Trap to change or much that we can do to change.
We can be set up in a similar way and achieve a different result.
Maybe Trap will fine tune some aspect, maybe Duff will pull off a bit of magic.
We are solid enough and well capable of scoring.

[OwlsFan]

A few things that seem to have been missed. Doyle was crocked late in the first half and limped for 5 minutes thereafter. He was never the same after that and I expected him to be subbed earlier. I thought up to that he had done very well, winning most things in the air.

i was at the game but studied in on video this am. Whelan tracks Anelka for the build up to the goal and then loses him at the crucial moment.

Lawrence was excellent. A real find for someone not getting his game regularly.

Messrs Giles and Drunkphy wanted us to attack in numbers. Could you imagine what France would do to us in a quick counter-attack (e.g. like Itlay did in the last minute).

Apart from the start of the 2nd half and a 10 minute spell leading up to the goal, we matched the French. I don't recall a save by Shay other than one or two right at him.

We are suited for away games. I go to Paris not without hope. I think we were always going to have to go to France and score there. Nothing has changed except we'll have to score more than them.

[jo84]

One thing which always contributes to the Atmosphere is the anthem. Last night, I noticed that they played a much slower version of Amhrán na bhFiann, compared to the high-tempo version they'd been playing at recent matches.

This makes it much easier to sing along to at the top of your voice, and so the anthem sounded better than ever when being sung by the crowd last night.
Just wondering did anyone else notice this?

Kudos to whoever directed the band to play this slower version.

[stiffler]

Moving forward, we need to sort out the problematic left back position. Kilbane has been a great servant for many years, though his time is near an end.

[as_i_say]

Yeah I'm Killers biggest fan however his time is up and he could easily have been responsible for wednesday being a dead rubber. But the fact remains we dont have anohter left back to replace him.

Just on the scrap at the end, apparently that noodle headed nob factor Willie Sagna refused to shake hands with Andrews. There was also some gloating going on which Dunne didnt take to kindly too. Don't be surprised if we are out of it with 10 mins to go on Wednedsay that a couple of French get flattened.

[head the ball]

This tie is far from over.
I thought we played excellent for most of the match. (as Trap keeps saying we are not Brazil, we have to play to our strengths i.e. keep game tight)Thought the atmosphere was great too.
The French will be even more cocky going into the 2nd leg. Trap will I'm sure play the exect same team, keep it tight for 65 mins and then let loose a bit. provided we dont concede beforehand the french will be getting nervous.
One good setpiece is all we need. pressure is off us now.
The big thing is not to concede first.
Roll on Paris.

[soccerboy]

we're still in with a shout,d atmosphere was amazing,thought we had the better chances but tired in the last 20 particularly in the middle,andrews not really up to it....leon best was shocking when he came on,totally out of his dept...!!if we somehow manage to nick an early goal in paris the french will be rattled,they know if they concede again they'll need 4 to go through,i think whoever gets the next goal in the tie will advance...!!

[KR's Post]

How will they need 4 if we get 2?????

[rambler14]

I was too tired to post when I got home so I left it till today.

I'll be brutally honest and say that I thought Ireland were useless. Only 6 players can hold their heads high after last night. Shay Given, John O'Shea, Sean St Ledger, Kevin Kilbane, Liam Lawrence and Kevin Doyle. St Ledger and Liam Lawrence excelling as Man of the Match candidates.
The rest were terrible. I thought Andrews and Whelan were over-powered too easily in midfield. Duff wouldn't take on the corner flag nevermind take on Sagna. I thought Richard Dunne had a nightmare and as for captain fantastic Robbie Keane.......he spent more time on his hole waving his hands in the air than he did being involved in the game. The subs made no impact what so ever. I made a joke when Leon Best came on I said "Here come Georgie's nephew" well if he was George Best's nephew Georgie is currently spinning in his grave.

But thats all seperate as two factors fecked us all together:
-Trappatoni's tactics.......THEY STINK! Use the wings for feck sake!:mad:

-The Referee. Worst I have seen in Croke Park. him and his officiating team were a disgrace. His performence brought me back to the e-mail received by the RTE panel on the Web Extra show after the Italy game about the possibilty of referee bias toward the seeded team. Well last night was proof of it existing. I mean at one stage Evra cleared the ball off the line after a deflected shot by Andrews which hit Diarra along the way and what did the ref give??? A feckin goal-kick!:mad:

[Hibernian]

TBH lads im not sure how people can say we played well.

We should have been beaten 5 or 6 nil to be honest. We are pure and utter rubbish as far as I could see. We were second to the ball for every ball even the tackles we were second best, never won a 50/50 ball all game.

I taught players attitude was very poor and be honest im not looking forward to going to Paris. Have feeling we going get thumped. We were meant be home team last night but it was men against boys in the play and attitude. So much for this French team having problems. Austria beat France 3-1 yet were did not look like we were going score once.

it was lucky goal but it was goal that was coming long way from when it was scored.

The players now need stand up and be men. But if 80,000 amazing fans cant get team going then I dont know what can.

[jmurphyc]

TBH lads im not sure how people can say we played well.

We should have been beaten 5 or 6 nil to be honest. We are pure and utter rubbish as far as I could see. We were second to the ball for every ball even the tackles we were second best, never won a 50/50 ball all game.

I taught players attitude was very poor and be honest im not looking forward to going to Paris. Have feeling we going get thumped. We were meant be home team last night but it was men against boys in the play and attitude. So much for this French team having problems. Austria beat France 3-1 yet were did not look like we were going score once.

it was lucky goal but it was goal that was coming long way from when it was scored.

The players now need stand up and be men. But if 80,000 amazing fans cant get team going then I dont know what can.

We had 3 or 4 very clear cut chances. France had less than that. Had Lawrence put the ball in the back of the net in the first half we may well have won.

The reason why we were second best to a lot of balls wasn't because the players weren't trying, it was because France are individually better, and because they flooded the midfield with players. Whelan and Andrews were often largely outnumbered as Duff and Lawrence were back trying to stop the full backs.

The players' attitudes was far from poor. They gave their best and started fighting with the French at the end. They then went on a lap around the pitch to clap the fans. All that shows that they care. To use a cliche, sometimes your best just isn't good enough. The evidence from after the game suggests that they will continue to give their all and we are by no means out yet.

[northerncelt]

Lads.... im gutted. Any neutral watching that game last night would be amazed that we came through a group unbeaten. France taught us a lesson from the word go. Anelka was immense and we were lucky not to lose by more.

Andrews had a nightmare.... summed up the night when the most creative thing he could think off was to kick ball off oponent for a throw in the from the exact same place he had recieved the ball from. This was when we were chasing game and in the end he booted the ball straight out.

But..... im an optimist and its only half time. Our "system" negates any potential home advantage so im thinking we could still get something if France get complacent and we hit them with an early goal. Robbie still seems confident which is good to see and hes due a goal. Infact we are due a goal... when was the last time we went three on trot without scoring? so I still think we will nick one over there.

I said to my mate before kick off... if we lose by one were practically out. Lose by 2 and were out. that still how i feel

Key to wednesday - early goal and somehow get tighter on Anelka

maybe... just maybe

[MeathDrog]

We had 3 or 4 very clear cut chances. France had less than that. Had Lawrence put the ball in the back of the net in the first half we may well have won.

.
Wouldn't have stood anyway. Linesman had his flag up.

[irishultra]

I'm afraid the stereotype of the plucky underdog with little skill but having the determination to beat the team of superstars didn't hold true. France wanted it more, had more fight in the them and ultimately thats why they won. They didn't win because of any individual brilliance.

[Riddickcule]

It is not over yet by any means, come on lads we can do this.

Lets be optimistic yet realistic, french are a shambles atm and we failed to capitalize.
We all know now we are on the all out attack on wednesday, and the french defence is pants, really we could do with Andy Reid, Stephen Ireland etc.
McGeady/Keane/Doyle/Duff should be enough to nab a goal or two.
Anelka was well lucky with that goal, Henry's half the player he was in his day, defence is a shambles.

We just need to retain possesion better, tire them chasing the ball...

Should Lawrence play? sure he works hard but theres nothing special about him imo.McGeady and Duffers all the way...

[Stuttgart88]

Lads.... im gutted. Any neutral watching that game last night would be amazed that we came through a group unbeaten. yeah, but we weren't playing in a group full of Frances.

Anyway, I think France were very disciplined in not conceding any frees anywhere near their box. Duff, the master at drawing fouls, was hardly fouled at all. This will be our best chance.

We went to Bulgaria and took a deserved lead. I think that's what we need to look at replicating here.

[Stuttgart88]

french are a shambles atm They didn't look shambolic to me. They always blow hot & cold in qualifying but always get there. That's what the big teams do. Why must we always put ourselves down by putting the quality of opposition down?

[geysir]

Wouldn't have stood anyway. Linesman had his flag up.
The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.

[geysir]

Just listening to the RTE panel now.

Everybody keeps talking about gears!!!
:D
Yeah, I just had a listen to that at half time.
Now I know where all the gear talk came from.

[Stuttgart88]

The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.Exactly right, on both counts.

In fact it wasn't an unrealistic penalty shout, and it was a half decent chance for Keane. The French keeper did really well in both of the one-on-ones he faced. Very sound game all round.

[MeathDrog]

The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.
you could be right, but I could've sworn he was waving the flag beforehand too.

[bennocelt]

-The Referee. Worst I have seen in Croke Park. him and his officiating team were a disgrace. His performence brought me back to the e-mail received by the RTE panel on the Web Extra show after the Italy game about the possibilty of referee bias toward the seeded team. Well last night was proof of it existing. I mean at one stage Evra cleared the ball off the line after a deflected shot by Andrews which hit Diarra along the way and what did the ref give??? A feckin goal-kick!:mad:

wow football is a funny old game - I thought the ref and the linesman were excellent:)

[stiffler]

wow football is a funny old game - I thought the ref and the linesman were excellent:)


Really? I thought that was the worst ref and linesmen we have had this campaign!!

[geysir]

He was a sound ref who was not easily fooled, I hope the Swede is up to the same standard.

RTE showed the penalty conceded by Carsley in the play off against Turkey.
Looked to be no doubt that Anders was correct to award it, more so for the dodgy movement of Carsley's shoulder.

[MeathDrog]

Really? I thought that was the worst ref and linesmen we have had this campaign!!
I thought the ref was good, but the linesmen weren't up to the standard needed for such an important game.

[stojkovic]

Well there goes all that about this French team being poor and there for the taking. They were quality,

Disagree. Spain, Brasil and possibly England would murder them.

[Ozymandias]

the referee had a good game. Left it flow and issued no silly cards...linesman were indifferent....Believe and hope..

[elroy]

Was at the game last night and have watched the game back again today.
Gutted, so gutted, im usually positive but I just cant see us going through now. A few points:

The lads worked their socks off and their commitment cant be faulted.
An excellent first half, at half time I thought we had marginally been the better team and I was confident we'd sneak it.

The goal was coming with about 15 mins, I think most of us in the ground could see that. Im not sure if it was a case of the French up'd it a gear or if we tired but I felt Trap shouldve changed things as we were defending deeper and deeper and creating little.

Our weak midfield was eventually going to catch up with us and it did last night. We minimised the french threat as much as possible but as the game went on we became more ragged and were lucky not to concede a second (Gignac missed a sitter). They simply possess a very greater degree of quality to us.

A Reid may well have made a difference last night but I feel the type of player we really lack is S Reid. A player strong on the ball and in the tackle. Our midfield very rarely get their foot on the ball and dictate play.......this was necessary in the first 20 mins of the second half last night when we were on the rack but it never happened. All we did was long ball straight back to the french or if we were lucky Doyle and Keane would create miracles and manage to win a throw or hold it up.

Set pieces was an area many of us had identified before hand that we could exploit. I think the French recognised these and gave away very few frees within decent range of their goal. They stood off Duff and minimised the number of fouls he drew. This is an area we need to improve on for wed. As we cant rely on our midfield to get us up the park we need to get as many set piece opportunities has we can. The few deliveries we had were in general poor bar the one effort flicked on by Dunne which almost landed for JOSH.

Was not happy with ref and linesmen last night, think they gave more decisions the french way. Having said that, the French could very easily have got a penalty when evra went down.

For some reason the Belgium playoff keeps coming to mind. 20 mins into the away game, we were in the exact same boat as we are now. An away goal down and needing to score................we nearly did it that night and probably shouldve so who knows.

Finally, any opinions on how the French will play wed, will they be conservative and try and defend their lead or will they attack?? Its a difficult one for them and i think first and foremost they wont want us to score. I can see it been scoreless with about 20 mins to go and by that stage Trap will have to go for it. I cant see him sending the lads out to attack too early.

[Stuttgart88]

The linesman was very alert to flag the French guy for offside when Dunne lost concentration. I'd say 9 out of 10 would have waved play on.

It's amazing how what was plain for me to see was seen so differently by others. Andrews had a nightmare? Not in my book - it was his best game yet for us in my opinion. Referee awful? Perfectly decent in my opinion and very lenient towards Andrews. One or two weird decisions - the "foul" after a goalmout scramble which ended in a Keane overhead kick where I saw nothing for example. He might have given us a penno for handball but it was a hard one to see and call as deliberate.

Some say Doyle was poor. Amazing really.

Funny thing is: people - including me at times - complain about the way we play, the way we cede possession, the way we rely on unglamourous methods in attack...

Yet get this: last night we created more clear cut chances and conceded fewer chances than we did against France in 2005, and lost to a lucky goal. We had Roy Keane & Andy Reid then and played the type of game most want to see us play now.

The reason I still have hope is that football is not rocket science. We were comprehensively stuffed in Stuttgart yet only conceded a cruel deflection and Dunne missed a gilt edged chance late on, Keane narrowly missing in the first minute. If a few of these marginal ones go our way instead of theirs we have hope. Like Trap says, maybe we'll get a deflection this time.

Scotland lost 2-0 to England at Hampden in 2000 and yet won the return 1-0, only Seaman preventing a 2-0 win for Scotland at Wembley (or was it the crossbar?).

[Reality Bites]

I think we will sneak one in Paris in first half, we had chances in Dublin and I suspect something similar will fall our way and we'll capitalise on it this time, but the way the Irish midfield tried in second half was worrying but if you haven't got the players that to hold possession then logic dictates you will be chasing it.
There is no obvious panacea or silver bullet tactic for Paris but I think you'll see Ireland giving it a real shot on Wednesday. If Scotland and Greece can do it then so can we. Its Halftime we know what these guys are about now its time to capitalise on our away from home form.

Incidently I was at match last night great atmosphere etc but a question did cross my mind and that is - how big in real terms is home advantage? Watching in the stands the irish fans booed and cajoled the french players in possession in the first half..I wondered does this really affect these guys at all, afterall they are all pros who play in hostile stadium all over Europe week in week out, a few fans booing them matters nought in my opinion and likewise shouldn't matter for Irish players in Paris either.

Its Halftime roll on the second half!

[tetsujin1979]

Abidal out of wednesday's game according to Sky Sports News

[geysir]

France are 1/25 to qualify :eek:

That's a sobering thought.

[Murfinator]

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

[Gather round]

Those odds are slightly distorted maybe. William Hill over here suggests 1/10 and 11/2. Deduct the bookie's margin (the odds add to ca. 106%), they have it effectively 86:14 in France's favor, or 1/6 and 6/1.

Bonne chance.

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.

[galwayjames]

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

[noddy102]

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

I hate when people call Thierry Henry 'arrogant'. He is one of the great football professionals of our time. All the people booing him last night when he took the corners should be thankful they had the opportunity to watch such a fantastic footballer in person. I had no qualms about singing his song last night on numerous occasions.

[geysir]

Agreed about Henry, he is a class act, both on and off the pitch.

Don't know about his spats with his boss Domenech, I suppose that doesn't count.

[carloz]

Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

[noddy102]

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

He'll be turned into Lasagne! ;)

[seanfhear]

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen
Hopefully no one will do something daft and get sent off early.

If the games up for Ireland then in the last ten seconds some one can let him have it.

[mypost]

France are 1/25 to qualify :eek:

To put that into perspective, they were the same odds on the government winning the Lisbon ref. We know what happened then.