Portugal V Republic of Ireland - Wednesday, 1st Sep 2021 - 2022 World Cup Qualifier

[osarusan]

Confidence must have been at rock bottom after previous results/performances, and this could really have been seen them, as a squad, turn a corner.

Big job for the manager to get them mentally ready for a very different game so quickly.

[Bielsa´s irish]

then the yellow on Doherty as well I want to hear Coleman and Kenny talk about all these stranger things we have watched today.. everything was prepeare.....the penalty wasnt ,....then the connolly penalty was twice the other and play on we were cooked today in a cacerole like chicken a la portuguesa

[Fixer82]

Connolly wrecked my head tonight. Rest of the lads were immense

[NeverFeltBetter]

Confidence must have been at rock bottom after previous results/performances, and this could really have been seen them, as a squad, turn a corner.

Big job for the manager to get them mentally ready for a very different game so quickly.

That's my fear. They'll be lower than ever in that dressing room, and now people are fully expecting six points from the next two games.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Confidence must have been at rock bottom after previous results/performances, and this could really have been seen them, as a squad, turn a corner.

Big job for the manager to get them mentally ready for a very different game so quickly.


No because players knew they were robbed by the officials with all those things that happened, i noticed connolly in first half got the ball in a counter attack got hacked by a portuguese Palinha was always a yellow ......nothing ...something was cooking...of course

[Calcio Jack]

Can someone please provide a translation of what Kenny was saying…. He’s taken his usual gibberish to a new level

[Bielsa´s irish]

they woudnt do it with the serbs because there would be a brawl on the pitch

[ontheotherhand]

Hard to blame the man for the timing of the subs and then also the subs for the mistakes leading to the goals....

Thought the team were generally fantastic. We are just lacking a bit of quality higher up the field. We had chances to go 2 up, both wasted by Connolly who also probably could have had two penos if he hadn't dived early on. I wonder would Robinson have made a difference because we put together some nice moves and there was clearly a plan to hurt them.

Ref was a joke. He had a narrative in mind and clearly wanted to be there for Ronaldo's big day.

Our back 5 is something to build on though. Some of the blocks and clearances were heroic as was the general application. Thought Omobamidele looked good when he came on. If you lose to a couple of Ronaldo headers you aren't alone in world football. A shame we didn't have better to spring from the bench but that's where we are.

[TonyD]

If you are focusing on Kenny after that you have your own problems going on

Mustn’t let the agenda slip, don’t you know. Any fair assessment of that would conclude that it was a good performance, and those young lads coming through have t(e makings of a decent team. It will take time, but the promise is definitely there.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Connolly wrecked my head tonight. Rest of the lads were immense

connolly was ok for me run in the tunnels very good, and got bossed by the referee the whole match,, they were making that remark on espn Argentina, how the ref was treating connolly

[TonyD]

Can someone please provide a translation of what Kenny was saying…. He’s taken his usual gibberish to a new level

Oh shut up. Sick of listening to this tripe.

[Neish]

Did Kenny stumble upon or forced into his best formation? Still not sure if he's learning or not, and his subs were very poor.

Lads looking for hope and what not used possession as a stick to defend Kenny with and to beat those opposed to the game plan and implementation we'd seen at the start of his reign. We had 30% possession backs to the wall stuff for most of the second half. Our best bet of winning was when we broke and countered them. The moral victory and self pity and loathing has occured many times under other managers in the past, we lost 2-1 defended resolutely for 35 plus mins of the end of the game, we've seen it before.

That being said some of the young lads looked good.

And it was so different under, McCarthy, O'Neil, Trapattoni etc?

[Bielsa´s irish]

Hard to blame the man for the timing of the subs and then also the subs for the mistakes leading to the goals....

Thought the team were generally fantastic. We are just lacking a bit of quality higher up the field. We had chances to go 2 up, both wasted by Connolly who also probably could have had two penos if he hadn't dived early on. I wonder would Robinson have made a difference because we put together some nice moves and there was clearly a plan to hurt them.

Ref was a joke. He had a narrative in mind and clearly wanted to be there for Ronaldo's big day.

Our back 5 is something to build on though. Some of the blocks and clearances were heroic as was the general application. Thought Omobamidele looked good when he came on. If you lose to a couple of Ronaldo headers you aren't alone in world football. A shame we didn't have better to spring from the bench but that's where we are.

i want all your sport newspapers to talk about it, all the news how the ref was not a joke but malevolent predemitated and purposeful i havent seen in my life a game were the neutral ref wanted to score a goal for a team like today

[The Fly]

That was the best Irish performance I've seen in a long long time.

[zero]

I said it was a good performance. It's still 3 losses on the spin. how many is too many? 10? 20? No upper limit I suspect.

[paul_oshea]

Hard to blame the man for the timing of the subs and then also the subs for the mistakes leading to the goals....

Thought the team were generally fantastic. We are just lacking a bit of quality higher up the field. We had chances to go 2 up, both wasted by Connolly who also probably could have had two penos if he hadn't dived early on. I wonder would Robinson have made a difference because we put together some nice moves and there was clearly a plan to hurt them.

Ref was a joke. He had a narrative in mind and clearly wanted to be there for Ronaldo's big day.

Our back 5 is something to build on though. Some of the blocks and clearances were heroic as was the general application. Thought Omobamidele looked good when he came on. If you lose to a couple of Ronaldo headers you aren't alone in world football. A shame we didn't have better to spring from the bench but that's where we are.

Ciaran Clark would have been a great option to just sit in the last few minutes. We were giving more and more space around the middle of the box as lads tired and didn't pick up players. Would have been perfect to have there for the last ten minutes. Still though all the players were never sold easy and silly dummy's and McClean was straight away for their first goal.

[Bielsa´s irish]

if you irish cant see the robbery of today with an honest performance ,,,,when ? they have to ink it in the newspapers and how this fiasco was cooked just with the first incident, the penalty .... then the yellow to connolly then the yellow on doherty then restricting the irish etc then the extra minutes not a yellow on Palinha when hacked connolly ...strange the penalty on connolly twice twice .... the second was a penalty

[Diggs246]

We now know our formation. Three at the back with Coleman and Doherty as the wing backs
That is a big plus for me

[Calcio Jack]

Oh shut up. Sick of listening to this tripe.

Eh you know… he was were eh you know ,talking , eh , sometimes gibberish , you know

[TonyD]

if you irish cant see the robbery of today with an honest performance ,,,,when ? they have to ink it in the newspapers and how this fiasco was cooked just with the first incident, the penalty .... then the yellow to connolly then the yellow on doherty then restricting the irish etc then the extra minutes not a yellow on Palinha when hacked connolly ...strange the penalty on connolly twice twice .... the second was a penalty

If you were around in the 70’s and early 80’s you’d have seen much worse. I remember blatant robbery in Paris, Sofia and Brussels in particular, made tonight’s ref look fair and balanced.

[brine3]

We now know our formation. Three at the back with Coleman and Doherty as the wing backs
That is a big plus for me

That should have been the formation since five years ago, but it seems a manager had finally stumbled into it

[geysir]

That's my fear. They'll be lower than ever in that dressing room, and now people are fully expecting six points from the next two games.
That's about the first performance in the Kenny era that one can see that there is a genuine team in the making. Firstly an outstanding prospect in Bazunu, a solid experienced defense with albeit some dubious attempts to play out from the back, a midfielder in Cullen (world class by our standards), a real man up front in Idah, and a solid sense of a cohesive collective team ethic.

[brine3]

If you were around in the 70’s and early 80’s you’d have seen much worse. I remember blatant robbery in Paris, Sofia and Brussels in particular, made tonight’s ref look fair and balanced.

Oh yeah we'd have been at Spain 82 if there was any sense of fairness at all. Jack happened to come in when football cleaned itself up a bit.

[Insidetherock]

Excellent performance.. deserved at least a point

But I keep saying.. focus on Germany in 24

Build, build, build.. blood, blood, blood

Mc Clean is now a busted flush, leave him out from here on in.. Connolly will come good, Udah was brilliant, Omabomidele gives us a new option, Cullen is growing into the team, Hendrick growing out.

We've 3 years and another 16-18 games before the qualifiers for 2024.. use them well

[seanfhear]

Oh yeah we'd have been at Spain 82 if there was any sense of fairness at all. Jack happened to come in when football cleaned itself up a bit.
Maybe it helped a bit having someone of Jack Charlton’s standing in the game being able to call out dodgy stuff if it happened !

[mark12345]

Hard to blame the man for the timing of the subs and then also the subs for the mistakes leading to the goals....

Thought the team were generally fantastic. We are just lacking a bit of quality higher up the field. We had chances to go 2 up, both wasted by Connolly who also probably could have had two penos if he hadn't dived early on. I wonder would Robinson have made a difference because we put together some nice moves and there was clearly a plan to hurt them.

Ref was a joke. He had a narrative in mind and clearly wanted to be there for Ronaldo's big day.

Our back 5 is something to build on though. Some of the blocks and clearances were heroic as was the general application. Thought Omobamidele looked good when he came on. If you lose to a couple of Ronaldo headers you aren't alone in world football. A shame we didn't have better to spring from the bench but that's where we are.

Agree with most if not all of this. Just a couple of general observations - hard not to blame our defenders for allowing Ronaldo a free header at goal not once, but twice. He never should have been allowed the freedom to net the winner. And one more thing - is there anyone on here who still believes Jeff Hendrick is worth a place in the Irish squad, let alone the starting eleven (my guess is there's not many, if any at all - which in itself is an indictment on SK's team selection). Anyways, it was a far far better performance from the lads than we all expected. Will mean nothing however if we don't build on it.

[da bishop]

There is no point people coming on here having a pop at certain players for not stopping that cross or the manager for subs/timing etc ,ALL of those players gave it everything they had for their country and their manager,the performance deserved at least a point ,a performance given by few decent elder pro,s and a crop of inexperienced promising youngsters.Thers only one set of performers togged out tonight to have a pop at and thats the officials ,ALL of them ,disgracefull.

[passinginterest]

Maybe it's just the usual match day optimism, but I expect us to keep it tight and make it very awkward for Portugal. I don't think we'll concede more than 2 and if we nick one at the other end there's a chance we get away with a draw. Obvious concern is in midfield, really only Cullen playing regularly so far this season and whoever is selected will need to put in a massive shift. Hopefully if there's evidence that lads have run themselves into the ground after 55 minutes there's no hesitation in brining in fresh legs early. With three games in seven days, he's probably going to have to use all the midfielders in the squad at some stage anyway. Expecting some variation of 3-5-2 or more realistically it'll be closer to a 5-4-1 or 5-3-1-1. Wouldn't mind seeing Long given the job of leading the line from the start for his experience with Parrot dropping into the deeper role and helping the midfield.

This turned out to be close enough to what happened. Just a shame we conceded the two so late. I think the fresh legs were a bit too late and probably the wrong ones, McClean getting sold the dummy for the first goal was very poor.

We looked more threatening than I think anyone expected, but yet again rarely looked like actually finishing the half chances. I do think the ref was harsh on Connolly a few times, he doesn’t help by looking for things so much, but there was a decent argument to be made for both penalty shouts he was involved in, it’s just unfortunate his finishing and final decision making wasn’t quite good enough.

I’ve said a few times I think Idah is the real deal and he really showed it at times. Only shame was he was out wide a bit too much rather than attacking things in the box.

Doherty seems to perform better for us on the left, I think it makes him concentrate a bit more and be a little more conservative and it actually suits him. It’s a shame the two goals were headers so the otherwise brilliant defenders have to take some flack, I think Coleman needs to do more for the second one and it looked like Duffy lost him for the first one. Ronaldo might not have his pace anymore but he’s still an incredible header of the ball.

A draw would have bought Kenny some much needed time. Despite the mostly good performance I’m sure the pressure has mounted further now and if there’s not a win and a draw in the next two games he might well be out the door. I think that would be a shame, because despite all the challenges he’s had I genuinely believe there’s progress being made and it’s worth sticking with.

[tommy_c12000]

Promising performance, sickening result in the end. More positives than negatives. Best performance from a Kenny side yet. Bazunu will learn from his error, did well aside from that. Coleman like a fine wine with a very good performance. Central defence was excellent, devastated for Dara hopefully it’s not too serious, wonderful to see Omobamidele getting valuable experience. Doherty was very good for the first 60 minutes, but was woeful in the final 30 - tired badly showing his lack of true match fitness. We badly need a couple of youngsters to take our midfield by the scruff of its neck. Hendrick was not good. Cullen was solid and should continue to start. McGrath has only proven himself at St Mirren, and needs to do more than that to convince me of a starting berth, he was not great today and was out of his depth. Connolly was woeful, even though his runs and energy were excellent. He has lost out on the traditional professional development years at a lower division senior team and left his ego get the better of him. He badly needs consistent game time anywhere, may not get it at Brighton. However, they are so light up front even Moran and Ferguson have a chance of breaking in sooner than expected over the coming months. Idah was simply immense. He has really come on leaps and bounds. He should hopefully start seeing more game time soon, especially with Pukki’s poor form. Farke’s persistence with one man up front is costing Idah dearly.

I wouldn’t have made the subs Kenny did, and he continues to show some level of incompetence. But he’s improving the whole time and we are actually playing some football. We now just need a few more youngsters to come through to strengthen the midfield and for Parrott to blossom, and we will be well set for 2024 qualification

[RiffRaff]

Lucky Ronaldo scored in the 6th of the 5 additional minutes otherwise the ref would still be playing injury time now

[brine3]

Agree with most if not all of this. Just a couple of general observations - hard not to blame our defenders for allowing Ronaldo a free header at goal not once, but twice. He never should have been allowed the freedom to net the winner. And one more thing - is there anyone on here who still believes Jeff Hendrick is worth a place in the Irish squad, let alone the starting eleven (my guess is there's not many, if any at all - which in itself is an indictment on SK's team selection). Anyways, it was a far far better performance from the lads than we all expected. Will mean nothing however if we don't build on it.

Jeff Hendrick put McClean nearly through on goal with a lovely move on the edge of the box to go with about five minutes to go. McClean lost the ball and Hendrick sprinted the full length of the pitch back to the Irish penalty spot to cover.

[paul_oshea]

Exactly Hendrick made some very timely interceptions too. A couple he probably could have done better with but he didn't do too badly tonight. It's funny how some people can only see one players wrong and another rights regardless of how they perform. I'm aware people probably think that with me and Connolly but I've always thought Hendrick did so little for us however tonight he did some good things and some very good interceptipms at vital times. Connolly however :D

2024 is 3 years away our best performers of Egan, Duffy Doherty and Coleman will be 32+ it's not like we can easily just replace these. Be careful wishing away campaigns for some exotic fruit that we might never get to taste.

[elatedscum]

Heartbreaking loss. I always get so depressed after senior losses that I don’t really want to write anything.

Big performances across the pitch. Hopefully it’s a performance indicative of the improvements made.

I genuinely think with this new format with 3 games in a window, it takes new managers longer to get their ideas across. Ireland flew out on Sunday night. Trained on Monday, some having played on Saturday. Then can’t do much on Tuesday as it’s the day before the game. Game on Wednesday. Recovery Thursday. Nothing too intense on Friday, as it’s the day before the game. Saturday game. Sunday recovery. Monday day before game, so nothing serious. Tuesday game. You’re basically cramming everything into a window which is a too tight to work on anything in training and I think it hinders the ability to prepare and get ideas across.

In the olden days per-Covid, you’d have camp starting on Monday, the first game at the weekend and the second game on Tuesday or Wednesday. It was far more civilised and you had a full week to work with players before the games started

[mark12345]

There is no point people coming on here having a pop at certain players for not stopping that cross or the manager for subs/timing etc ,ALL of those players gave it everything they had for their country and their manager,the performance deserved at least a point ,a performance given by few decent elder pro,s and a crop of inexperienced promising youngsters.Thers only one set of performers togged out tonight to have a pop at and thats the officials ,ALL of them ,disgracefull.

You'll get no argument from me. The officials were awful, truly awful. Take for instance the O'Shea / Ronaldo incident before the penalty - O'Shea, according to the rules deserved a yellow for kicking the ball away, but Ronaldo should have been given red for striking the Irish player. They are the rules as written by FIFA but the referee and both of his assistants were all simultaneously looking the other way, as they were for most of the evening. That was just one of a few questionable incidents on the night.

[mark12345]

That is true. But his lunge on the Portuguese player for the penalty was more than a counterweight. Overall I thought he was poor.

[pineapple stu]

Are you after replying to your own post there?!

[liamoo11]

That is true. But his lunge on the Portuguese player for the penalty was more than a counterweight. Overall I thought he was poor.

Thought Jeff was good tonight worked so hard and was tidy on the ball. That playing as an 8 is his position he is so lost when played as a 10.

Be interesting to see if mcgrath can bring guile to things on Saturday when we will hopefully be trying to make the running and will not have oceans of space on the counter. Really hope we stick with 2 up top keep that partnership that looked promising tonight . If he is not going to stay with a back 5 then hopefully we get a narrow 4 in midfield behind that front 2

[zero]

Are you after replying to your own post there?!

certainly looks that way. var will surely have a look.

[Kingdom]

Does Kenny ever sound confident or capable of filling the rest of us with confidence ?

I tried to have a **** with my left hand at 16. Couldn't manage it. I've kept trying over the subsequent 24 years and still can't manage it.
Stephen Kenny isn't a good live interviewee. He wasn't 20 years ago, and isn't today. But I dare it hasn't held him back, just like my ability to lob one off with my left hand hasn't held me back either.

[Kingdom]

I know its no use to you today but i cant recommend the IPTV in the link highly enough. Game changer. Can basically watch any station (around the world) live... and much, much more. Plenty of folks here who do the full installation and all legal. Not sure about the USA where i think you are.

https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/260c8860-53f9-4df6-853f-ce5bc50234ca/20210602_190408_.jpg/:/

seconded. Would advise to reduce the number of channels to reduce the buffering though.

[backstothewall]

I've been one of Kenny's biggest critics, but anyone giving him grief after that needs to wise up.

It was, to a man, a heroic performance against a world class side playing who were lucky to have 12 men on the field.

Bazunu - 9.5 - Drop's half a point for almost throwing one in at the end of the first half, but otherwise faultless. Hell of a save from the peno. How he didn't get the MOTM award is beyond me.
Coleman - 8 - Tremendous energy for a guy who isn't a youngster anymore. Led by example.
Duffy - 8 - Looks back to his best.
O'Shea - 6 - wasn't on long, but never put a foot wrong. Unlucky to pick up what looks like it could be a bad injury, but would really want to kop himself on over that business with Ronaldo.
Omobamidele - 8 - Solid as a rock when he came on. If anything we got better for having him there. Looks to the manor born in international football.
Egan - 8 - Great jump for the goal. He's one of the senior members of the squad now, and he gave a performance to reflect that.
Doherty - 9 - Our problem down the left is a problem looks solved.
Cullen - 8 - One of the first names on the teamsheet now
Hendrick - 7 - Not his best, but not his worst. One of his better performances of recent times, but I fear the player who lit up Euro 2016 is gone forever. Never a penalty though.
McGrath - 8 - I really really like what i've seen of this guy. Destined for a far higher level than St. Mirren.
Connolly - 8 - I was sitting watching the game with my brother who said there's a hint of Shaqiri about Connolly. He wasn't wrong.
Idah - 9 - Led the line like an old pro.

Much more importantly, it was the first game when i think the youngsters shrugged off the imposter syndrome. It didn't looks like a bunch of old pros trying to see the kids through the game. Everyone was just doing their job.

Real progress. All we have to do now is beat Azerbaijan

[Razors left peg]

Im nowhere near capable of writing much. Its about as sickened as Ive been with a football result in years. Weirdly Im surprised that I can still feel so p1ssed off by it, I thought those days were behind me. To me there is a genuine feeling that we were great tonight but robbed of at least a deserved draw by a horrific referee.

There is clear progress in this team, its far from perfect but we are absolutely on the right track. We've got some super young players and with hopefully another couple of additions we are starting to look like a football team again. I thought Idah in particular was sensational in his hold up play, work rate and skill levels at times. I really think hes got the makings of a top class player.

[backstothewall]

I've a terrible feeling that the invisible hand of Nike was holding the whistle at times tonight. Commercially, we're a much more appealing opponent for the record to go against than Qatar (who they play next). The football world still considers us to be a proper footballing country for some reason.

[SkStu]

I tried to have a **** with my left hand at 16. Couldn't manage it. I've kept trying over the subsequent 24 years and still can't manage it.
Stephen Kenny isn't a good live interviewee. He wasn't 20 years ago, and isn't today. But I dare it hasn't held him back, just like my ability to lob one off with my left hand hasn't held me back either.

Finally, someone managed to get me to laugh since the final whistle went. Who else but Kingers, you wonderful w@nker.

[pineapple stu]

Those ratings are a bit high to be honest backs!

Connolly was poor; just outclassed. I'd give him a 5. Bazunu - saved the penalty but gave it away too. His fumble nearly cost us, and booting the ball down the pitch after his save in the 94th minute did cost us. It's the last minute of the game; you have to keep possession. Had surprisingly little to do, partly because the centre-backs were great (and they had to be) - and a scoring centre half was the obvious choice for man of the match for me. Idah - had some good touches but found it hard to get into the game. Wasn't for want of trying, but it wasn't a 9 performance.

I think Portugal being so poor has to be acknowledged as a factor - you'd be looking at 5s for them on average, and 7s for us.

[SkStu]

The referee had already warned Bazunu about time-wasting, possibly more than once; i dont think he could play it to feet either (his or our defenders) if i am thinking of the same incident. I think he comes away from tonight with plenty of credit. There was a lot he did very well.

I find it hard to criticize any of the players tonight, or the manager. Just very sickening to lose it like that. The positives have to have been the emergence of Omobamidele, McGrath and Idah as more than viable international options. In addition to O'Shea, Bazunu and to some extent Connolly under Kenny's tenure. That is significant. Cullen, Doherty, Duffy, Coleman and Egan were very good for most of the game. I agree with those who thought Hendrick was solid and that McClean is done for at this level. Bad for the goal and should have done better with his chance (for example, if he had gone across the keeper there is a chance the keeper parries it out to our other two attackers that were in there - poor).

If we can get a couple of wins in the next week then this window has been a strong positive in the Kenny era. There are really positive signs all round and a bright future for this management team and bunch of players.

Referee was an absolute bell end.

[Kingdom]

It's funny how some people can only see one players wrong and another rights regardless of how they perform.

Gtfo of town you absolute spoofer! ha ha haha hahahahaha!

[paul_oshea]

Talk about opportunism. Quote the whole bit. Yer worse than the sun.

"Arguments based on this fallacy typically take two forms:

As a straw man argument, it involves quoting an opponent out of context in order to misrepresent their position (typically to make it seem more simplistic or extreme) in order to make it easier to refute. It is common in politics.
As an appeal to authority, it involves quoting an authority on the subject out of context, in order to misrepresent that authority as supporting some position"

[paul_oshea]

Those ratings are a bit high to be honest backs!

Connolly was poor; just outclassed. I'd give him a 5. Bazunu - saved the penalty but gave it away too. His fumble nearly cost us, and booting the ball down the pitch after his save in the 94th minute did cost us. It's the last minute of the game; you have to keep possession. Had surprisingly little to do, partly because the centre-backs were great (and they had to be) - and a scoring centre half was the obvious choice for man of the match for me. Idah - had some good touches but found it hard to get into the game. Wasn't for want of trying, but it wasn't a 9 performance.

I think Portugal being so poor has to be acknowledged as a factor - you'd be looking at 5s for them on average, and 7s for us.

Good analysis stu. Looking forward to hearing eiramblers in the morning. Agree with Canadian stu about needing to get the wins from the next two. It's imperative. No more hard luck stories, positivity required and bring about that change with wins.s

[SkStu]

It was decent counter-analysis alright from the pineapple one. But then again most analysis is better than “we should have just man marked Ronaldo after he scored the first goal”… :D LOL just messin