Slovakia

[gwhite]

Looking at them against NZ, if we don´t take 6 points off Slovakia in the 2012 qualifiers...

[Noelys Guitar]

Looked poor the whole game to me. Bulgaria would have won that NI qualifying group. They had already allowed NZ a gilt edged chance just before the late headed goal. Kevin Doyle will be fancying his chances of a couple of goals against this lot.

[Sullivinho]

Not impressed with 'em at all. Cautious not to dismiss them in case it comes back to deliver a savage bite on the @ss though. We'll have the bigger picture after their next two games I s'pose.

[Ciaran W]

Tbh i wouldn't be suprised if they held us at home

[Gather round]

Looked poor the whole game to me. Bulgaria would have won that NI qualifying group

I think not, given that Slovakia managed 22 points to Bulgaria's 14. Why not judge them over 10 matches rather than one?

[shakermaker1982]

I think not, given that Slovakia managed 22 points to Bulgaria's 14. Why not judge them over 10 matches rather than one?

Slovenia and Slovakia have been absolute muck. I'm amazed you didn't top the group.

[Sullivinho]

Looked a poor side today. Comfortably beaten 2-0 by Paraguay.

[bennocelt]

Muck poor and stupid defensive play - what good a point if they have to play Italy in the last game....................

[ArdeeBhoy]

I think not, given that Slovakia managed 22 points to Bulgaria's 14. Why not judge them over 10 matches rather than one?

Except Bulgaria were playing better teams.....
;)
And the teams Slovakia beat, must have been pure sh*te on that evidence.

[shakermaker1982]

Second game vs Paraguay just reinforced my opinion that there is nothing special about em. Of course we should respect them but nothing to fear. Hamsik disappeared.

[tetsujin1979]

Hamsik and Vittek could cause some problems, and Weiss will have learned from the experience in South Africa
The game in Bratislava could be tricky, they only lost one game at home in qualifying for the World Cup. Slovenia beat them, but Slovakia knew a win in their last game against San Marino would guarantee them top spot in the group.
They won all but one away game, losing to Slovenia again, and beat the Czech Republic in Prague which was their only loss at home, and the only time the Czechs conceded at home in the qualifying series
Sestak was their top scorer with six strikes, but no other player contributed more than two goals during the qualifiers

[Charlie Darwin]

A lot of teams dominate in qualifying but struggle to lift their game for the actual championships. The Czechs are serial offenders and Romania were guiltiest at Euro 2008. I'm not sure how much you can take from Slovakia's WC performance - probably better to look at their last qualifying campaign.

[eaststand85]

Slovakia are 1 up on Italy, might calm down those who thought after the first couple of games that all we needed to do was turn up in Bratislava to pick up three points! Combined with France's early exit it also puts our performances last year in perspective a little bit.

[Dodge]

Spot on eastend. We had 2 chances to qualify and were stopped by possibly the worst European sides (Slovenia maybe in with a shout) in it

[ArdeeBhoy]

Yes, where did that Slovakia come from?
Italia were so bad, it almost looked like some of them were 'got at', you could almost smell some sort of 'fix'....
Shocking team perfomance by them.

[Charlie Darwin]

I couldn't smell any 'fix'...

I'd fancy us against that keeper. He looked completely unable to deal with any cross.

[OwlsFan]

Slovakia are 1 up on Italy, might calm down those who thought after the first couple of games that all we needed to do was turn up in Bratislava to pick up three points!

Only someone who had no idea about football and Ireland's record on our travels over the past 24 years (and beyond) would think that 3 points in Bratislava was a gimme.

[Stuttgart88]

The lessons from the last campaign - for me - were that we're improving, we can now travel with some confidence of a result but that we're not clinical enough to take our key chances, nor tight enough at the back to avoid giving careless goals away. We're just not streetwise enough yet - if we were we'd have seen out Italy, seen out at least one of the two Bulgaria leads, and scored a second in Paris.

We need to improve on that score regardless of whether Slovakia are better or worse than we first thought. I think if we had SSL and Lawrence earlier in the campaign, if we had placed less faith in McShane and not thought Andrew Keogh was a wide midfielder we'd have done better.

[shakermaker1982]

If we have any aspirations in qualifying for another tournament we need to pick up 4 points against Slovakia. Like I said earlier respect em but I'm not terrified at the prospect of facing em home or away.

I bet Lippi wishes he took Cassano and Totti now. I got in for the last 20 minutes of the game (had planned on watching it 'live' but HD box didn't record it!) and it was bloody exciting.

[ArdeeBhoy]

I couldn't smell any 'fix'...

I'd fancy us against that keeper. He looked completely unable to deal with any cross.

Clearly you are unfamiliar with the workings of the Italian underworld....

[elroy]

Anyone watch their game today??

Only seen the highlights and they appear to have performed ok. The Dutch def having the lions share of possession and chances but alot of that was owed to the magnificent Robben.

[TheBoss]

I thought the Dutch were cruising through the game, and could have easily have put more into the game if needed. Slovakia are an average in fairness.

[Charlie Darwin]

Slovakia are probably around our level, so I think we'd probably do well to get 4 points from the two games and 6 would get us qualified. They're not as organised as us and are suspect at the back, but they have blistering pace when they attack and can score goals.

[Stuttgart88]

I think we'll need to be on top of our game to get more than 2 points from them. They're good in places, just like us. They made a fair few chances against the Dutch.