Best Ireland Performance Ever?

[stiffler]

All things considered, i believe that Wednesday night in Paris was Ireland's greatest performance ever on a football field.

Forget about Henry-gate, forget Roy mouthing off, the players to a man played outta their skins and should receive due recognition.

I don't think that performance has ever been matched before. Fair dues to Trappatoni, the whole back room team and most importantly, the players.

[Closed Account 2]

I'm tempted to agree, in the last 15 years it's hard to pick a better match in terms of our performance. Maybe Italy in 1994... but that was on a neutral venue with (more) experienced players. What surprised me about the game in Paris was the way in which we played - we passed the ball superbly, the midfield closed them down and didnt give them time on the ball, the defence halted most of their attacks and supported our own attacks very well. The only downside was we were perhaps not clinical enough in front of goal - but it would be hard to blame Keane, Duff and Doyle when they ran so much for the whole game.

I wish we could all just forget about Roy Keane, I used to respect him but after what he said today it's clear his just a bitter, twisted man. He doesn't care about Irish football and it sounds like he wanted us to go out!

[Stuttgart88]

Hannover 88 comes close, but similar outcome.

[tiktok]

Given the circumstances and the quality of the opposition definitely the best I've seen since 88

[jmurphyc]

Given the circumstances and the quality of the opposition definitely the best I've seen since 88

I wasn't old enough to remember 1988 so it would definitely have to be the biggest for me.

[irishultra]

Spain in 02 world cup is up there.

[SkStu]

All things considered, i believe that Wednesday night in Paris was Ireland's greatest performance ever on a football field.

Forget about Henry-gate, forget Roy mouthing off, the players to a man played outta their skins and should receive due recognition.

I don't think that performance has ever been matched before. Fair dues to Trappatoni, the whole back room team and most importantly, the players.

its in my top 5 in terms of performance for sure.

(no order)

v. Russia 88
v. Spain 02
v. Italy 94
v. Holland 01
v. France 09

[tiktok]

Spain in 02 world cup is up there.

Thought about it, but since Duff dived for the peno I decided against it :D

[jmurphyc]

its in my top 5 in terms of performance for sure.

(no order)

v. Russia 88
v. Spain 02
v. Italy 94
v. Holland 01
v. France 09

I'd have Germany 2002 in there too.

[SkStu]

ill put the last 5 minutes in there but the rest of the game was poor performance overall in fairness...

[geysir]

To put this game in context, if we had got the result that matched the performance, it would have been the first time ever such a feat was achieved and achieved against the last WC runners up. It would have been a thoroughly merited win as well as the biggest shock achievement in International football since Greece won the Euros.

[lopez]

Yes. Best in my time following Ireland abroad since 1981.

[zinedineontour]

Deffo the best performance that I have seen since going to Ireland games since 85. Every man stood up to be counted. World class performance from the lads.

[noddy102]

Best Irish performance ever.

[bennocelt]

No way, not at all - Italy, England and Russia are still way ahead
France didnt play at all remember - no Benzema and Ribery injured so nothing to really fear. Should have won with all the chances we had.
France are 14/1 to win the world cup which says a lot really

[irishultra]

No way, not at all - Italy, England and Russia are still way ahead
France didnt play at all remember - no Benzema and Ribery injured so nothing to really fear. Should have won with all the chances we had.
France are 14/1 to win the world cup which says a lot really

oh well then :rolleyes:

benzema isn't good. eamonn dunphy seen him score a few goals against british teams in cl last year and took a fixation to him. he has struggled to adapt in spain and gignac is ahead of him in that team on merit.

what france had against us was basically typical france. ribery or no ribery.

[geysir]

'France didn't turn up' piece of wisdom from bennocelt :)

Predictable, as in it was predicted in the pre match thread that should Ireland put in the necessary performance you would still even get posters downplaying our effort by saying the French didn't play/turn up/perform.

[Brian Boru]

Magnificent performance. But Spain 89, England 88 and Italy 94 were better. Granted that no cheating b..tards were playing for the latter 3 teams.

[Stuttgart88]

'France didn't turn up' piece of wisdom from bennocelt :)

Predictable, as in it was predicted in the pre match thread that should Ireland put in the necessary performance you would still even get posters downplaying our effort by saying the French didn't play/turn up/perform.Absolutely. You can't win.

We're rubbish.
Therefore anyone we beat must be rubbish.
Therefore there's no merit in any victory.

[irishultra]

italy seemed like a backs to the wall job, this performance was not stereotypically irish. we dominated.

[Greenbod]

this won't be a very popular choice here.......but Givens hat-trick against Russia in '74 was still one of the best irish performances i've ever seen (Giles and Brady (on his debut) in mid-field. In retrospect, probably one of the best mid-fields ever in world football! If only we had some proper organisation in those days. Russia were really one of the top teams at the time too. Christ I feel old!

[Brian Boru]

italy seemed like a backs to the wall job, this performance was not stereotypically irish. we dominated.

True but McGraths performance alone was incredible.

[Supreme feet]

I found my old video recording of the Ireland-Italy '94 game last year, and watched it. It struck me that the standard of football (from both teams) was fairly poor by modern standards. Not very many well-constucted moves by either team (bar when McGrath made three consecutive blocks and when Sheridan hit the bar). Football has really improved in terms of pace, technique and intensity since '94. Which makes Wednesday night even more remarkable.

edit - oh, and the Italy game wasn't 'backs to the wall' by any means. We should've been two up after an hour. England '88 was backs to the wall alright!!!

[tetsujin1979]

Sometime between Saturday night and Tuesday morning this thought occurred to me:

During Celtic's run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003, they faced Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool.
Against Blackburn, Celtic won 1-0 at home, but were expected to face a much tougher game at Ewood Park after being outplayed for long periods in the first leg, despite the home advantage. Celtic went on to win comprehensively 2-0 to become the first Scottish club in ten years to overturn English opposition.
In the quarter finals, they drew 1-1 at home to a Liverpool side that expected to go through in the return leg at Anfield. Celtic won 2-0 (including one of my all time favorite goals from Hartson)

Both times, Martin O'Neill set the team out in the second leg, after learning from the mistakes, and taking advantage of the knowledge gained, in the first leg.

I believed that Trapattoni would likewise have learned from the first leg against France, and would put that knowledge to use in the second leg in St Denis. The clear difference between the sides in Croke Park was Anelka. He was simply head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch in terms of passing, movement, creativity and his performance deserved a goal, even if it was fortuitous.

On Wedensday, he was faced with a well marshalled, solid and organised midfield, linking well with the defence behind it, and this playmaker of the side was reduced to almost ineffecuality. Trapattoni had dealt with the main threat, and set out his side to deal with it, while not sacrificing the creativity that would be needed to grab the precious away goal.

Some people on the forum asked during Staunton's reign, and even during Kerr's what the Ireland side would be like under a manager who knew how to organise a team. Well Wednesday night's performance was your answer, and the culmination of 18 months of preparation, study and dedication from the management team.

Make no mistake, this wasn't just one of the greatest performances I have seen by an Irish team, this was one of the greatest performances by any team facing a markedly superior side. France brought on Champions League veterans in Malouda and Gouvou. We brought on McShane. That tells you the difference in class in the sides.

France were the better side on paper. Well, paper players win paper cups.

[Emmet7]

The goal aside, defensively and in midfield yes. Richard Dunne was immense, John O'Shea played the game of his life, St. Ledger hardly put a foot wrong and I think Kevin Kilbane actually did enough to stay at left back.

Midfield, Andrews was outstanding, 10/10, Whelan did well, Duff was quality once more and Lawrence, excellent, setting up the Keane chance.

Doyle played very well, better than Keane in my book.

However, the only weakness as throughout the campaign is our inability to actually convert chances and possession into goals, to put the ball in the net. We were by far the better team and we should have scored 4 goals in my view. Roy Keane is right in that respect.

We didn't sit back, we just didn't take chances.

The Robbie Keane miss was really unforgiveable. Taking more than one touch in that situation, really it's about time he grew out of that immature habit. As a striker you should never take more touches than you need to put the ball in the net.

That bit of showboating may have cost us the match, more so than the dodgy goal. And it's showboating like that, that lead people to say, Robbie isn't among the top finishers in the game.

[Alf Honn]

Italy 1994 Holland 2001 and Spain 2002 were better displays.

As Duff said on Monday, Ireland would have to be at the top of their game and France have an off-day in Paris. Both happened.

France were a shambles in normal time in Paris. Not taking anything from our performance but everything in context.

[Closed Account 2]

I dont know about those games being better performances. I agree that France were not in great shape, but nor were the Dutch in 2001. We didnt have players with a vast amount of experience on Wednesday, we were trailing 1-0 (inc away goal) from the first leg, we had to totally change from our normal more conservative style of play, we were away (as opposed to home or neutral)...

[Iano]

About 10 years ago in the euro qualifiers I remember being very impressed with Ireland when they beat Yugoslavia, after that performance I thought they would have easily qualified, watched it in a dodgy Toronto bar filled with upset Yugoslavians ,had restrain myself from celebrating, it was 2-1. This 2nd leg against France and the 2002 WC game against Spain as well as the one against Yugoslavia are my top three.

[Scooby Doo]

The greatest performance i've ever witnessed from an Irish side. Especially considering that virtually everybody, especially the majority of posters on this site, gave us little or no chance of really taking the game to the French like we did. It was the monumentous display that Ireland supporters have been crying out for. I've always said that we have the players to become a real force in Europe - or at least a top tier two side anyway - and one of the best things about it now is that it shoved the words of the ManYoo bandwagoners down their throats, these people who proclaimed 'knowledgably' that Ireland are sh!t. Those people (and we all know them) are ironically the very people that are now discussing replays and cheating with such vigour. Well fu*k the begrudgers because the team proved we can be class. Trapattoni is the miracle we needed and I pray we'll show our true potential in the Euros. quarter or semis for me. OUR team earned the respect of the world this week. For that we as supporters should swell with pride. Éire Abú!

[bennocelt]

'France didn't turn up' piece of wisdom from bennocelt :)

Predictable, as in it was predicted in the pre match thread that should Ireland put in the necessary performance you would still even get posters downplaying our effort by saying the French didn't play/turn up/perform.

France wont do much or anything in the world cup, just like how crap they played in the last Euros. If you think they are great thats your opinion. They were there for the taking

and Benzema is awesome

[Stuttgart88]

That bit of showboating may have cost us the match, more so than the dodgy goal. And it's showboating like that, that lead people to say, Robbie isn't among the top finishers in the game.I don't think anyone really thinks he's one of the best finishers in the game. Anyway, I haven't seen it since wednesday but my guess at the time was that as Lloris had already made 3 blocks in similar situations he felt he had to take it around him. Watching live it loooked like he should have hit it first time.

Shame.

[Irish_Praha]

How anyone can say Holland 2001 was one of our top five performances is beyond me. Definitely one of our best results but in terms of performance you couldn't put it into the same class a Wednesday or some of the other games mentioned on here.
It was a great achievement to go down to 10 men so early in the game and still manage to go a goal up and hang onto it until the end but that is exaclty what we did in that game, hang on. On another day Holland would have scored 2 or 3 goals.

[NeilMcD]

Yeah Holland 01 and England 88 were both backs to the wall jobs. I think England 91 and Russia 88 are games were we dominated against top opposition and also Spain 92 in Seville was a great performance too.

[jebus]

I'm too young to remember 1988 so can't comment but this performance was certainly one of the better ones I've ever seen, in particular with the original 8 in defence and midfield, they were magnificent and if we can continue showing that level of courage than there's no reason why Andrews and Whelan can't continue to boss the midfield are throughout the coming campaigns.

That said I thought Given was sloppier than usual, Doyle played well but not great and Keane had a very good game alright but that miss was a howler to be fair, only black mark against him really.

[Disgrace]

The 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in the qualifiers for Euro 2000 was one hell of a performance

[philkildare]

Are we mixing up great performances with great results?? This was our greatest result in modern times, we have beaten a top team away from home in a competitive game!! Italy 94, England 88, holland 2001, all probably seemed like greater wins because of the circumstances, but we defended for long parts of those games.( Italy 94 producing the greatest player performance i ever saw from Paul McGrath).

Wed game was the best performance i have seen from an Ireland team. We restricted them to a couple of long range shots and smothered their midfield.

Can we do that though for a full campaign??....I hope!!!

[Uncle_Joe]

Following from where we were on Saturday night, away from home against France I cant remember being at a match where we played better. We may have had better results but that performance was incredible.

[SkStu]

The 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in the qualifiers for Euro 2000 was one hell of a performance

yes, i was going to include that game. Keane and Kennedy with excellent goals. The atmosphere in Lansdowne that night after we won was special. I was convinced that we were back and going to qualify after that game.

[RiffRaff]

Nobody has mentioned the 1-1 draw with england at wembly in the european championships when we really should should have beaten them easily. Sadly a familiar story!!

[antrimgreen]

Absolutely. You can't win.

We're rubbish.
Therefore anyone we beat must be rubbish.
Therefore there's no merit in any victory.

:D spot on France didn't perform!!!..that is even more credit to our players, magic performance, work rate, tempo, play, mixed with pride and passion.

Top Drawer, roll on the Euro Qualifications ;)

[Disgrace]

Nobody has mentioned the 1-1 draw with england at wembly in the european championships when we really should should have beaten them easily. Sadly a familiar story!!

And Houghton had another chance to make him to most celebrated goalscorer in Irish history... reminiscent of some of the misses on Wednesday. Still, the 15 minutes of sustained pressure that led to Quinn's goal is like nothing I'd seen before, or since.. Even when the goal came, it was like a relief.

[Emmet7]

The fact is, had Henry kept his hand to himself, the ball would have went wide and there'd be no blaming McShane or anyone like that.

There's been a lot of pathetic defences of Henry, David Ginola saying on CNN that Henry wasn't to blame it was the ref's false.

I just watched a replay there, and at no stage did I see Henry hold his hands up after the goal and rush to the referee to claim it was handball.

He rushed to congratulate the goalscorer instead and the ref had declared a goal at that stage.

I do think the ref has a lot to answer for. The smell of this match being rigged is very strong and it continues to stink. The decks were loaded against Ireland before the match with the seeding, and the fact Ireland were at home first made it more difficult with France having home advantage which is almost worth a goal given the pressure refs are under, for the extra time.

I know the ref had a good game, but maybe he was hoping France would actually score a legitimate goal and not a dodgy one such as from a wrong penalty decision which would have jepordised his world cup refereeing hopes and summer holiday in South Africa.

When it became increasingly clear that France were not going to score, maybe he he said right, the next time France look like scoring I'm not going to stand in their way by blowing up for a free. In this regard I believe the ref and the linesman knew full well what Henry did and the linesman saw it perfectly, but they weren't going to give the free.

I have a feeling Trap is right to be suspicious about the referee team. The whole thing stinks.

And what stinks the most is that everyone claims the referee could see nothing yet he was able to say adamently to the Irish players that the ball hit Henry on the hip.

So he didn't see what Henry did, yet he was able to tell the Irish players where the ball struck Henry. Is anyone else suspicious?

[Greenbod]

Is anyone else suspicious?

No. it's only you.

[Emmet7]

No. it's only you.

In the same week that 200 matches are being investigated for rigging, its not something you can overlook easily.

My points are still valid. The ref didn't see anything yet could tell the Irish players with confidence it hit Henry on the hip which everyone in the stadium and watching on TV could see wasn't true. The linesman had a perfect unimpaired view of the incident and would clearly have seen the ball hit him on the hip. It was a long way away from his hip.

[Stuttgart88]

Maybe his linesman - who he consulted - told him that. Ref had no chance of seeing it, as proven on Sky Sports. Linesman had a good view.

I think if the ref was under pressure to give a decision he could easily have given the penalty.

Sure the whole system stinks but I think we were just rank unlucky in this instance.

[bennocelt]

If the ref was dodgy then he def would have given that peno
He was let down by his linesman and fifa, and mostly the French players themselves

[brine3]

Italy 1994 Holland 2001 and Spain 2002 were better displays.

As Duff said on Monday, Ireland would have to be at the top of their game and France have an off-day in Paris. Both happened.

France were a shambles in normal time in Paris. Not taking anything from our performance but everything in context.

Holland shat all over us in 2001, I don't know how they didn't manage to score. Although we did score with a brilliant passing move when we were down to 10 men... one of the greatest moments in Irish football.

We had France in our pockets on Wednesday. We created chances and dominated them. We didn't let them create anything. Best performance I've seen since 1994 anyway.

Nobody has mentioned our 2-0 drubbing of World Cup semi-finalists Croatia in 1998. One that often is forgotten...

[Donegalcelt]

Yeah Holland 01 and England 88 were both backs to the wall jobs. I think England 91 and Russia 88 are games were we dominated against top opposition and also Spain 92 in Seville was a great performance too.

Agree totally. We played well in Giants too v Italy. McGrath was that good, I think they only got one shot on target, from Signori, which Packie saved easily enough. Sheridan hit bar, also.

Holland 01 and England 88 were real nerve-wracking and we we lucky on occasions.

Spain 92 was as good a game as Keane ever played - wasn't Maradona at Sevilla that time and was on about how impressed he was? Quinn missed a sitter and Aldo had a goal disallowed. They also had a last man red-carded.

Russia 88 was excellent, and really hard to believe that we only drew, while England 91 at Wembley was outstanding. They were penned in for long spells that night, only scored a poxy defelction by Dixon off Stan, and Ray Houghton missed a great chance, one-on-one, late in the game to win it.

Spain 02 was also very good, although MrFritz and his linos were very obliging, and we were better than Germany in the same competition.

In recent history, we've proved we really can lift it against the top sides, or at least get a decent result - Portugal twice (1-1, 1-1), holland twice (1-0, 2-2), Germany and Spain (1-1 and 1-1), France away twice (0-0 and 1-0, well 1-1), Italy twice (2-2 and 1-1). It's them pesky Isrealis, Swiss and teams like that who cause the problems!

[Donegalcelt]

In the same week that 200 matches are being investigated for rigging, its not something you can overlook easily.

My points are still valid. The ref didn't see anything yet could tell the Irish players with confidence it hit Henry on the hip which everyone in the stadium and watching on TV could see wasn't true. The linesman had a perfect unimpaired view of the incident and would clearly have seen the ball hit him on the hip. It was a long way away from his hip.

Sunday Indo reckons lino waved appeal appeals cos he was certain that Gallas (not Henry) didn't handle. Doh! How he missed the first one God knows.

They also reckon that the fourth official knew it was handball, but the Irish Mail said that he only gave the news to our Swedish friend at half-time in extra-time. In hindsight, Duffer should've taken the most almighty tumble in their area in the second period of extra-time!

[as_i_say]

Considering how much weaker this team was compared to the personnel involved in USA 94/euro 88 and even the dutch in 2000 and 2001, surely last week was the greatest ever performance.