Switzerland 1-0 Liechtenstein

[pineapple stu]

From Aertel page 221 (http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p221.htm) . They scored in the last minute. Hardly the greatest preparation for the Euros ever! Really looking forward to this qualifying campaign now!

France won 1-0 against the Ukraine with a late goal too.

[Littlest Hobo]

sod that...we want the english to beat swiss real easy. Everyone needs to see how ordinary they really are. And come september we will trounce them with our strongest team.

[b_mcsweeney]

the swiss and the russians are definitely no great shakes, it was a huge disappointment we didn't come out of that group and i'd be hopeful that we can get at least second this time around.

that said, i'd be slow to read too much into last weekends friendlies, with euro2004 just around the corner and players wary of injury and not too focused on the result, some odd results were thrown up. ireland beat holland in holland. hungary beat germany in germany. france and switzerland struggled against the ukraine and liechtenstein. i doubt they'll be too bothered if results go right next week.

i doubt if too many ireland fans remember the summer of 1994 for the friendly we lost at home to the czech republic.

[concanta]

I take on board that the friendlies dont make that much difference but it is more the performance rather thatn the results that are beginning to impress me. The way we pass the pass and look much more secure(barring the nigeria game) I really think we will comfortably beat Switzerland - I can see us beating them even by a couple of goals away from home...revenge will be oh so sweet

[Bowsy]

Thought we played some excellent football against Dutch and in general during our friendly games. Ruud Van Nijstelrooy has said that he was impressed by how we played, that we deserved to win and that we should be at the Euro Championship Finals on that showing. Think we have slightly more strength in depth now plus I think the Swiss will really under estimate us this time. It's a bit of a role reversal to euro qualifiers when they were the underdog.
Think we will take Swiss twice. Most important one for me is France away. Get a result from that and we can win the group in my opinion. I'll be there and hopefully get to experience one of the great Irish performance of all time.

[ger121]

While I don't think we'll win the group as I feel even if we match the french for points they will have a superior goal difference , we are more than capable of getting one of the two best runner-up spots that are available this time round. We can get a point in Paris and wins in Israel and Switzerland, if we play like we did against the Dutch. Kerr has a decent sized squad and there is a bit of competition for certain spots so I expect there to be some good performances in the forthcoming qualifiers. Germany here we come!!!!

[eirebhoy]

I take on board that the friendlies dont make that much difference but it is more the performance rather thatn the results that are beginning to impress me. The way we pass the pass and look much more secure(barring the nigeria game)
I know the players gave it their all and played magnificantly but I would give Kerr a lot of praise for the Dutch performance. Every kick out by Given was going to a defender and making its way up to the forwards. When we played Romania Given kicked every ball long and we weren't getting much from them.

One bit from the match I can remember involving Barrett on the wing, he played a one-two with one of our players and put a Dutch player to shame. We never used to do any of this and I hope we stick to it, the long ball days are gone, especially when Clinton is probably the only attacking players over 6 foot and he's not the best with his head.

I woudn't be too optimistic about beating the Swizz in Basel though. They have a few decent players.