Post Match and looking ahead

[Stuttgart88]

Bonne chance.Thank you

[MariborKev]

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

They lost the first leg, won the second leg and it went through?

Happy days:D

[Den Perry]

I think that was an awesome post, Emmet. Its obvious you take care in making it. I think it is blog worthy.
It sums up my opinion almost 100%.

well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

[Kingdom]

Gutted. Dejected. Inconsolible. Proud.
Those were the feelings leaving the ground. Felt the team gave their all, but were beaten by a better collection of players. Atmosphere was very good, probably the best in Croker. Hard to pick a best or worst player on the night.

On the face of it France seemed to step it up in the 2nd half, and the goal was coming. Gourcuff had a fantastic game for France, and like Pirlo for Italy ran the show and drifted into spaces effortlessly which players aren't able to do.
Thought Lloris had a fantastic game for France. 4 times I counted where balls came into the area between the penalty spot and the line and he claimed each one.

The Irish lads again seemed jaded about the hour mark, not surprising given the hustling.

Thought McGeady could have been brought on quicker, I have to be honest. 15mins isn't fair.

A real tough assignment now on Weds. I'm not hopeful, but, and its a massive one, if we were to score first it would really put the cat among the pidgeons.

Allez les verts.

[Den Perry]

Man so gutted after that, just back from the game i would like to watch the highlights on tv again.

Firstly i know i am biased on this but emmet a lot of the stuff you are saying about doyle is bull. Yes Doyle was poor away to italy when at a time he was playing with the injury that later in the season required surgery to cure, italy at home he was only returning following said injury.

But you question his workrate in tonights game when once again he has ran himself into the ground for the team, plus constantly competing with 2 centre halves in the air for all our kick outs and long deliveries. he is not the tallest of strikers but has a fantastic leap and whins far more than the 1 in 5 headers you suggest plus any header he looses the defenders clearing header does not travel far clear because of his commitment to challenging the defense in the air.

You praise keane work rate tonight and tell people who were questioning this before hand to take note. Well i was happier with robbie tonight than a lot of games in the past but imo this is the effort he should give everytime he pulls on the green jersey.

Often for example if ireland are attacking up the right wing and robbie is the nearest striker to the player with the ball he will make no effort to make himself available and so doyle will have to make the hard yards and run down the channel to give our midfielder an option. He will not compete in the air for headers and has the uncanny ability to 9/10 make the run into the wrong position following doyles knock on.

Plus you question doyle's ability to hold up the ball and be pyhcisal when he gave a master class in making himself available for every throw and set piece taking in hard won balls and getting them under control making space and recycling clean possesion to kick start attacks. Until he was substitued and the bigger stronger and fresher Best came on and lost every 50/50 ball against a tiring backline, one which kick started the counter attack to the french goal.

anyway long rant over except for the one aspect of all irish players i was disappointed by not one irish player was prepared to make that one cynical tackle to disturb and upset Gorcuff and to a lesser extent Lasanna diarra, anelka, sagna or henry frances most influential players on the night, come in late take a yellow and let them no they are in a war and see how the react. yes some great tough clean tackle were executed tonight but sometimes one late bookable tackle upsets a team more.

Also as we did not get many corners or frees near the box but an abundance of throws i wished to see Delap's name on the program. i think the french would hate to face his aerial bombardment
Anyawy off to paris on monday all we need is a win the tie is still alive JUST.


I actually think Delap's throw in would be a serious weapon against them

[DotTV]

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.

Good point. We looked most vulnerable after the goal when we threw a bit of caution to the wind. It's a high risk strategy. Can't see Trap changing much and if we can keep them out for most of the game we may sneak a 1-0 and bring it to extra time...but in reality it's hard to see the French not scoring considering they play with three strikers and an attacking midfielder.

[Den Perry]

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

If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.I'd love to know what he said.I suppose insulting Irish people can't be described as "racist" because Irishness isn't exactly a race, but it would be very intersting to see if UEFA / FIFA would punish him if anybody made a complaint.

[Emmet7]

well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

I am going to put you on ignore now because it's blatent you know nothing about football.

Andews was our best player in the first half, he did his job, the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion, do you remember that. He was faultless in the first half. He put his body on the line time after time such as when he was elbowed in the face.

In the second half he tired but was still ok. Anyone who says Andrews was poor in the first half is an idiot and not worth listening to and i don't care who they claim to be. There are a lot of idiots with no knowledge of the game in Ireland masquarading as experts.

Doyle is not up to the task of delivering us a goal. I can explain the technical reasons but I doubt a person of your limited intellect would understand, but for the benefit of others, Doyle receives the ball 90% of the time with his back to goal. That makes the job of scoring much more difficult. The best way to score as a forward is facing goal and running onto a ball, usually over the top or else run onto a knockdown as Keane did in Bari and when he was facing goal. Letting Doyle have the ball to his feet and facing away from goal is pointless. What will he do? Lay it off to some other player of limited ability? Who then lashes a high ball into the box with only Keane to compete against two tall centre backs.

People say Doyle is good at holding the ball up and waiting for suppport. Again that's no use to us. When he holds it up like that, he also holds it up for the French defence to get back into position. That's one of the reasons Doyle is so easy to counter. He has lost a few yards of pace with injury and can't run onto a through ball, hold off players with his strength and score. It won't get any better in the next 3 days.

But of course people like Den Perry have no interest in the technical side of soccer. They are more interested in listening to journos and parroting their obsession with Andy Reid.

Andy Reid would be useless without quick strong forwards to run onto his passes. He has strong forwards to run onto his passes at Sunderland and who are lethal finishers. He has Kenwan Jones to aim his crosses at. We don't have that at Ireland. We don't have any clinical finishers. Our system is not set up to allow our forwards score in big games. They have only scored one between them in our 7 biggest games, and even that was scored when Doyle wasn't on the field.

[kingdom hoop]

If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.

Jesus, the stress is really getting to people on this thread - some bizarre posts.

Den, I love the spirit. :)
But if you feel that strongly about it, maybe run on to the pitch in Paris and do it yourself. Don't wear green though. I'd rather see my "warriors" win the important fight.

[Blue Man]

Apparantley Diarra was heard saying the tie was over and that Andrews was an Irish c**t or something to that effect. I think the scuffle at the end was exactly what we need going into Wednesday because surely this will rile up the likes of Dunne and Andrews and its going to be a hell of a first ten mins in Paris!!

Early goal and its game on again. Score first and we'll win it! Believe!! Cmon Ireland

[SwanVsDalton]

Emmet 7: Post's too long to quote but just wanted to make a point...

I don't think changing Doyle will make a difference in that regard. The way we play - direct, deep lying midfielders - means the gap between strikers and centre mid is huge. Doesn't matter if it was Doyle or Best or De Stefano. They would still receive not enough support from midfield. This is our system. However it doesn't mean Doyle might not pop up and grab a goal, he's excellent around the six yard box and has proven this in the international level. Changing him would, if anything, disrupt the structure of a team as a whole. He's more vital than you indicate imo.

[danonion]

I really don't think Doyle is good enough for this level. I love his work ethic but the quality is just not there. I'd love to see some system tested where McGeady plays through the middle. He's pretty strong, pacy and skillful, could be able to set keane up from an advanced midfield role.

Either way I don't want to be because I am sick of getting disappointed time and time again but I am optimistic for Wednesday.

Hoodoos have to end sometime..

All we need is a bit of luck..

Roll on Wednesday!

[mypost]

its going to be a hell of a first ten mins in Paris!!

Early goal and its game on again.

I do believe there'll be an early goal. I don't believe we'll get it.

England/Holland 1990, Spain 1993, Holland 1994, Germany/Spain 2002, Switzerland 2003, Czech Republic 2007, Italy 2009 to name a few of those other early goals......

[ifk101]

.... the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion

I can actually hear your accent here. :D

[ifk101]

I'm reasonably confident and upbeat about the away game as I do think we created a number of good goal scoring chances and I do see us scoring (especially from a set piece).

[Duggie]

i was so proud of the lads sat night. we def deserved a draw out of it. i thought duffer had a great game, dont know why he was taken off. fair play to andrews and dunne for giving it to diarra after the final whistle. id love nothing more than us to do them wed night but i dont know. they will have a lot more chances over there. will be a tough ask as we all know deep down. but you never know...

[OwlsFan]

Early goal and its game on again. Score first and we'll win it! Believe!! Cmon Ireland

I'd prefer a late goal to be honest. I know beggars can't be choosers but an early goal would shake the French out of their complacency and I couldn't see us holding out for 80 minutes in such circumstances. That said, I'll take any goal whenever.

[DeNiro]

Looking back at it. I think the first leg result might favour us in a strange way. At least we now go there knowing that we have to score. If we had gone there at 0-0 and France had scored in 72nd minute in Paris we'd have had played out what happened Saturday night, but at that stage too late. I think we'll be cautious, but fancy us to score at least one. Sometimes, it good to score in the first leg, but where did that get us against Belgium in 97 or Turkey in 99. This is the first play-off we will ever have faced going without a goal. It might just bring us out that little bit more. Some people saying Trap will go for broke in last 10 mins, I don't think so. He usually only gambles that with Folan but he's not there. Best doesn't appear to have the same impact.

For the first time in few years, I think there's real sense of make-or-break about this one and the players feel it. It's almost audible in their post match interviews. Robbie Keane will be 32 (?) at next World Cup, he knows Wednesday is last big chance to get himself to a World Cup in his prime. The likes of him, Dunne, Kilbane all experienced let downs under Kerr and Staunton, I think the reality might just be dawning at the right time.

[paul_oshea]

I dont know where all this optimism is coming from, we had a couple of half decent chances, and that was about it. We contained them well, but that was in a game where we thought we could go there with a 0-0 and still be ok, it backfired and maybe ledger should have done more to close anelka down, a deflection like that usually means you have given the striker that little bit too much space and its only a half block. Either way i reckon we will have to go an win, the french will score early, we could well score but I cannot see us winning. I think we need to be realistic here, plus i dont want to feel as deflated by building myself up for the inevitable fall. Leaving croker saturday was as depressing as leaving the irish embassy in boston when we were knocked out on penalties, and i dont like feeling like that. Ill still sing my heart out for the 90 mins like saturday for the lads.

[Duggie]

looking at anelka's shot i dont think it was even going to trouble shay. loooked weak and way a really bad effort. :mad:

[geysir]

I dont know where all this optimism is coming from,
You can distinguish between hope and optimism?

No matter who we have played at Croke Park we have given them 80% of the ball so it's no special achievement for France to dominate the ball.
I'm sure Bulgaria were very confident of beating us in the return game in Sofia.

[paul_oshea]

Ya, and how did that end up geysir?

[paul_oshea]

anyone got the game i will try and watch it.

Spent so much time concentrating on singnig and stuff i cant remember a couple of these chances that were mentioned and want to ahve another look.

Funny thing is, oshea said if he got a chance again like the one in paris he would do a lot better this time. :D

[geysir]

Ya, and how did that end up geysir?

It would have gone to penalties :)
Do you have the cojones to face that?

[Stuttgart88]

Come on Paul, don’t you think that pretty much everyone here acknowledges that we’re rank outsiders now?

However, we’re being subjective and looking for areas where the door may open for us. If the team thought like you I wouldn’t bother traveling.

The scrap on Saturday may work in our favour
They may think the tie is won
We may take the game to them like we did in Bulgaria, after Bulgaria dominated the Dublin game
We may get a goal from a set-piece or other route
We may ride our luck like Scotland did when they won there
What if we have an early one-on-one and Lloris takes Robbie down and gets a red card?

Stuff happens in football, like Hull winning at Arsenal despite being 1 down and there being a gulf in class. Like Scotland winning at Wembley after losing 2-0 at home.

I don’t for a second EXPECT it to happen but I’m hoping it will

[DeLorean]

What if we have an early one-on-one and Lloris takes Robbie down and gets a red card?

Dammit, it'll never happen now that you said it!!

[ifk101]

Everybody is realistic in the knowledge that we are not going to dominate and control the pace of the game in Paris. But for all the ball the French had on Saturday they really didn't do that much with it. I don't see them running away with the game in Paris and judging from the few set pieces we had on Saturday, they didn't look comfortable in defending our set pieces. We will have chances to score on Wednesday - it's up to the players to make the most of them. It's far from over.

[Duggie]

well we might score from 2 corners. ya anything is possible. but overall its going to be tough. they will be better at home. all we all can do is pray we get a bit of luck or something and at least get a 1-0 to bring it to extra time. what better way for andrews to go up to diarra if we knocked them out and told him where to fcuk off.

[dr_peepee]

Haven't seen it on the box yet.

There's not much to say without regurgitating what's been said already. Hard to fault any individual really. Thought Andrews played his best game for us. Doyle works so hard for the team to the detriment of his own game. He does the same for Wolves and Reading. He is Technically alot better than he gets credit for in some quaters and his work rate goes some way to mask our poor midfield.

Was a bit bemused when Best came on and took up a position in the middle with Keane alone up front practically. I would have preffered/thought it would have been the other way round with Keane coming from deeper and Best competing up front.

I also don't buy into this "should have closed Anelka quicker thing". Players of that quality can punish you for over committing too. The same was said about Dunne and Henry after the France game in Landsdowne too. You have to choose battles as a defender. The deflection was wicked

France looked good in posesion because Trapp sets out to contain them when in posession rather than pressure them into loosing possion so I don't give too much stock to it. Their keeper had to be better than ours on the day. We mustn't forget that.

Next match. Kick Lumps out of them. There's no accountability now. Games are finished. Cards are never carried. Take the yellow, walk and let Whelan get him next time, and so on.

Lawrence played very well but I wouldn't start him in France. McGeady has to start. There was little or nothing given in the final third. McGeady Duff and Hunt will put them on the back foot more than Lawrence will. They managed to contain Duff because he was really all they had to worry about in that regard. No one else was going to draw anything out of them. McGeady only got a few minutes on Sat and Hunt was on the wrong side for him to truly do what he's been good at for Ireland.

[tetsujin1979]

It's not like the French don't have history in this.
Bulgaria 1993 anyone?

[geysir]

Ronnie Rosenthall :)

[Stuttgart88]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7dxno9_ixg


(How do you attach this so the picture appears, with the "play" arrow?)

Quality goal. What a first touch and what a shot.

[Closed Account]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7dxno9_ixg


(How do you attach this so the picture appears, with the "play" arrow?)

Quality goal. What a first touch and what a shot.
Put the youtube id, i.e i7dxno9_ixg, in [.yt] [./yt] tags (remove . )
i7dxno9_ixg

[geysir]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7dxno9_ixg


(How do you attach this so the picture appears, with the "play" arrow?)

Quality goal. What a first touch and what a shot.

Just in case for others, i´ll replicate the original board instructions

For example: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OOprXKpuVRc.
Usage value
Example Usage [yt]OOprXKpuVRc[yt]

[geysir]

Could our commentator be likewise struck speechless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqYazMiKv0E&feature=related

[monsexile]

The French media are playing up the fact that there will be 25,000 Irish in the stadium. Really looking forward to this one now. Quite confident that we will score but not so sure we'll keep a clean sheet. 2-1 with a late winner with no time for a comeback would be perfect.
http://www.football365.fr/france/equipe-de-france/article_362047_france-eire-quelle-ambiance-au-sdf-Entre-amusement-et-agacement.shtml

[dynamo kerry]

arguably the french lads touch helped kostadinov there

that bulgarian team went on to great things.. intimidating but still inspiring.


I'm torn between thinking for the future and focussing on wednesday. I've decided to stick with the next game and worry about the euros later. We only need to score once to make it very interesting. And the great thing is the french can never have more than 1 away goal.

We can have 2! (maybe)

[Greenbod]

And the great thing is the french can never have more than 1 away goal.

We can have 2! (maybe)

This is exactly why I always think it's better to play away second......we're going into a deciding 90 min game where our goals count for more than theirs!

[dynamo kerry]

You can distinguish between hope and optimism?

No matter who we have played at Croke Park we have given them 80% of the ball so it's no special achievement for France to dominate the ball.
I'm sure Bulgaria were very confident of beating us in the return game in Sofia.

hope means you believe things could be ok

optimism suggests they will be...

I am optimistic that I will be hopeful ...;)

[dr_peepee]

You can distinguish between hope and optimism?

No matter who we have played at Croke Park we have given them 80% of the ball so it's no special achievement for France to dominate the ball.
I'm sure Bulgaria were very confident of beating us in the return game in Sofia.

Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane...

I wish I could tell you that Andrews fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be. I wish I could tell you that - but football is no fairy-tale world. He never said who did it, but we all knew. Things went on like that for awhile - matches consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Andy would show up with fresh bruises. The Sisters kept at him - sometimes he was able to fight 'em off, sometimes not. And that's how it went for Andy - that was his routine. I do believe those first leg was the worst for him....

[Dun Laoire]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7dxno9_ixg


(How do you attach this so the picture appears, with the "play" arrow?)

Quality goal. What a first touch and what a shot.

slightly off topic but was that the last game Ginola played for France? Was he blamed by Houllier for sticking the cross in and gifting the ball back to the Bulgarians.

[Den Perry]

I am going to put you on ignore now because it's blatent you know nothing about football.

Andews was our best player in the first half, he did his job, the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion, do you remember that. He was faultless in the first half. He put his body on the line time after time such as when he was elbowed in the face.

In the second half he tired but was still ok. Anyone who says Andrews was poor in the first half is an idiot and not worth listening to and i don't care who they claim to be. There are a lot of idiots with no knowledge of the game in Ireland masquarading as experts.

Doyle is not up to the task of delivering us a goal. I can explain the technical reasons but I doubt a person of your limited intellect would understand, but for the benefit of others, Doyle receives the ball 90% of the time with his back to goal. That makes the job of scoring much more difficult. The best way to score as a forward is facing goal and running onto a ball, usually over the top or else run onto a knockdown as Keane did in Bari and when he was facing goal. Letting Doyle have the ball to his feet and facing away from goal is pointless. What will he do? Lay it off to some other player of limited ability? Who then lashes a high ball into the box with only Keane to compete against two tall centre backs.

People say Doyle is good at holding the ball up and waiting for suppport. Again that's no use to us. When he holds it up like that, he also holds it up for the French defence to get back into position. That's one of the reasons Doyle is so easy to counter. He has lost a few yards of pace with injury and can't run onto a through ball, hold off players with his strength and score. It won't get any better in the next 3 days.

But of course people like Den Perry have no interest in the technical side of soccer. They are more interested in listening to journos and parroting their obsession with Andy Reid.

Andy Reid would be useless without quick strong forwards to run onto his passes. He has strong forwards to run onto his passes at Sunderland and who are lethal finishers. He has Kenwan Jones to aim his crosses at. We don't have that at Ireland. We don't have any clinical fditers. Our system is not set up to allow our forwards score in big games. They have only scored one between them in our 7 biggest games, and even that was scored when Doyle wasn't on the field.

Emmet, just because a person does not share your views does not entitle you to make the accusations you have.In addition,you criticised me for name-calling on a previous thread, now you are doing exactly that.Then again, it probably shows your lack of intellect, as does your spelling."supurb" - what a dope you are.

[Wolfie]

Most of what's worth being remarked upon has already been said - but we've got to re-iterate the fact that its half-time and this game is still worth fighting for.

If the first leg had have ended nil all - we were going to have to score in Paris anyway!!

Its a massive challenge and the odds are stacked against us but has it ever been any other way in these crucial matches?

If we can replicate our approach as in Bari (albeit against 11 men this time, but you get the point) we could force an equaliser.

The lads put in a monumental effort in Dublin and I was proud of them all. A little bit of luck (possibly a bit more composure too) could easily have yielded a goal from the few chances we got.

Its not over quite yet.

[Den Perry]

I am going to put you on ignore now because it's blatent you know nothing about football.

Andews was our best player in the first half, he did his job, the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion, do you remember that. He was faultless in the first half. He put his body on the line time after time such as when he was elbowed in the face.

In the second half he tired but was still ok. Anyone who says Andrews was poor in the first half is an idiot and not worth listening to and i don't care who they claim to be. There are a lot of idiots with no knowledge of the game in Ireland masquarading as experts.

Doyle is not up to the task of delivering us a goal. I can explain the technical reasons but I doubt a person of your limited intellect would understand, but for the benefit of others, Doyle receives the ball 90% of the time with his back to goal. That makes the job of scoring much more difficult. The best way to score as a forward is facing goal and running onto a ball, usually over the top or else run onto a knockdown as Keane did in Bari and when he was facing goal. Letting Doyle have the ball to his feet and facing away from goal is pointless. What will he do? Lay it off to some other player of limited ability? Who then lashes a high ball into the box with only Keane to compete against two tall centre backs.

People say Doyle is good at holding the ball up and waiting for suppport. Again that's no use to us. When he holds it up like that, he also holds it up for the French defence to get back into position. That's one of the reasons Doyle is so easy to counter. He has lost a few yards of pace with injury and can't run onto a through ball, hold off players with his strength and score. It won't get any better in the next 3 days.

But of course people like Den Perry have no interest in the technical side of soccer. They are more interested in listening to journos and parroting their obsession with Andy Reid.

Andy Reid would be useless without quick strong forwards to run onto his passes. He has strong forwards to run onto his passes at Sunderland and who are lethal finishers. He has Kenwan Jones to aim his crosses at. We don't have that at Ireland. We don't have any clinical finishers. Our system is not set up to allow our forwards score in big games. They have only scored one between them in our 7 biggest games, and even that was scored when Doyle wasn't on the field.

I think I know more about the technical side than a cretin like you Emmet. Andrews gave the ball away on numerous occasions - passing the ball to your teamate is probably the most basic technical skill in football.I actually think Andrews was good in the first half,and I like the guy,but he was completely over-run in second half.A match is 90 minutes long - probably another "technical" detail of which you seem to be unaware.

[jmurphyc]

Most of what's worth being remarked upon has already been said - but we've got to re-iterate the fact that its half-time and this game is still worth fighting for.

If the first leg had have ended nil all - we were going to have to score in Paris anyway!!

Its a massive challenge and the odds are stacked against us but has it ever been any other way in these crucial matches?

If we can replicate our approach as in Bari (albeit against 11 men this time, but you get the point) we could force an equaliser.

The lads put in a monumental effort in Dublin and I was proud of them all. A little bit of luck (possibly a bit more composure too) could easily have yielded a goal from the few chances we got.

Its not over quite yet.

Precisely. Chances are, we're going out. However, that doesn't mean that we're definitely finished. Everything is against us, and yet, we only need one goal and we're back in the tie. One slip, one mistake, one moment of inspiration, and suddenly, it's game on. It happened in the dying moments of the Germany game in 2002 and it happened in the dying moments of the Italy game in Bari. It's incredibly unlikely that we'll do it, but it was even more unlikely in those situations. If we can keep it level on Wednesday then we're in it until the moment the referee blows the final whistle.

[Den Perry]

Precisely. Chances are, we're going out. However, that doesn't mean that we're definitely finished. Everything is against us, and yet, we only need one goal and we're back in the tie. One slip, one mistake, one moment of inspiration, and suddenly, it's game on. It happened in the dying moments of the Germany game in 2002 and it happened in the dying moments of the Italy game in Bari. It's incredibly unlikely that we'll do it, but it was even more unlikely in those situations. If we can keep it level on Wednesday then we're in it until the moment the referee blows the final whistle.

I agree, we're definitely still in it

[Closed Account 2]

Dammit, it'll never happen now that you said it!!

It happened in Belgrade a few months ago, he came flying off his line and tripped Zigic (or may have been Pantelic) red card and penalty to Serbia (which they scored). At one goal it's never over and were playing France not Italy or Germany - I can't see the French shutting a game out like the Italians or Germans - they have flair but not world class organisation.

We came back against Spain to get a late goal in 2002, we came back against Germany in 2002 with a late goal, we came back in 2009 against Italy in Bari all of those times we grabbed late goals while not at home, we can do the same in France. With Trap we have the best manager we've had in a long time and the French might well underestimate us at their peril.

I just wish someone would tell the players to SHOOT FROM DISTANCE, that is a major weakness for Llloris and if Whelan or Keane gets space they should have a crack.

[jmurphyc]

I just wish someone would tell the players to SHOOT FROM DISTANCE, that is a major weakness for Llloris and if Whelan or Keane gets space they should have a crack.

Andrews managed to get a few shots from distance. The problem is that his accuracy was poor. We were seeminlgy attempting to do so, it's just that it fell to the wrong players.

[Noelys Guitar]

How are French going to approach this game? The French crowd will be demanding they attack us from the off. And I can see them trying to take the **** playing keep ball and going nowhere 1-2's up and down either line. I really hope they go for the killer goal/goals allowing us the chances we will need to score. I believe Duff is made for this type of game. He showed enough in the first half on Saturday to suggest that he can take their right side apart with that match now under his belt. I still feel we did not play particulary well on Saturday. And it is us who can go up the Dunphy/Giles mythical gear.

[Leeside Swagger]

The atmosphere was incredible on Saturday night, I was there for the rugby on Sunday as well, in pretty much the same seats and it was like a library in Croker.

Still in with a reasonable chance if we can keep it tight and get a late goal.