Republic of Ireland V France - Monday, 27th March 2023 - Euro 2024 Qualifier

[paul_oshea]

France played as well as they needed to play.

Deschamps said exactly that, "we did what we needed to do, we got 6 points". I do think though he thought Ireland would roll over once the first went in. France just want to get through these games without any injuries.

That said we played well. France probably didnt need to hit 5th gear but we were still very good at what we had to do.

[SkStu]

A couple of additional comments...

1. The ball from Cullen just before there goal. There was a chance for him to play a simple ball around the corner of a French player for Doherty to run onto into space. I saw it in real time (easy sitting on the couch) but it would have been a fairly high percentage pass. Not sure if Doherty would have made a shout or not. Instead Cullen seemed to panic a wee bit and rolled it to Knight who had also stepped up a bit early. Very unfortunate and could equally have been us breaking away.

2. Paul - i thought Kenny was awful again in front of the camera last night to be honest. He gets so nervous and has a hard time formulating his thoughts and articulating them. I love the man but I feel uncomfortable watching him at times. You might remember but it was one of my biggest fears when he was announced as the future manager because it goes back to his Bohs days. That sort of nervous energy/manner is something that i thought would see him crucified by the media and fans (and to be fair, they haven't).

[Real ale Madrid]

France played as well as they needed to play.

They only "needed" to beat the Netherlands 1-0 as well on Friday. Instead of sitting back against far superior opposition to us they went for the throat and could have won by any score. But their footballing perspective changed magically last night and only did the necessary against us, despite acknowledging after the game that Maginan's save was worth a goal. I find that analysis overly negative tbh. We did a good job on them and restricted a team who skittled a lot better teams than us 7-1, 4-0 etc. over the past few years to 2 or 3 long range efforts. In my opinion that is more down to our tactics than any other factor.

[paul_oshea]

All credit to John O'Shea obviously

In the cold light of day it does feel like a point dropped. To concede from what was really the only mistake all night and to have their keeper pull off an absolute world class save was really cruel. Not sure anyone can argue the approach was wrong in any way. I thought we kept the ball really well in the first 10 minutes, then after that we had to sit back and be compact and we did struggle to get our for a lot of the first half.

That was because France figured out if they press us high up we dont have the ability to play the ball around. We hit some balls over the top, one or two misplaced ones though( actually 3/4 from Coleman his only blight), to counter this and it was mostly effective. That's what made the goal so disappointing.

In replays it does look like maybe Collins put it in the one place he had a chance to save it, but it was a powerful header and the keeper had no right getting such a strong hand to it.

I felt that at the time, but didnt want to comment until I'd seen it again on TV. If there were enough power and not across his head, he went for accuracy over power instead of a hybrid approach, that was a goal. A world class save but as Roy Keane says "that's his job". World class keepers will make World class saves. But I do feel nitpicking when saying that, hopefully he recognises that himself though.

Agreed on the last paragraph I dont feel anyone had a bad game.

[pineapple stu]

-------------------- Bazunu --------------------
----------- Collins - Egan - XXXX ---------
Coleman ---- Cullen ---- Molumby ---- XXXX
-------- Ogbene ------------------ XXXX ------
------------------- Ferguson --------------------

Moving things on a little, are we all more or less agreed that this is the basis of our team for the foreseeable future?

I don't think there's a need to pigeon-hole it; it'll move around a bit game-by-game. Three months between games means things will change, especially with a young squad.

Ogbene played very well yesterday in a pretty thankless role, but he was on the bench the second half of last year and people were happy with that. Against a team where we need to actively create more up front, does he start? Johnston would almost be the first name on my teamsheet against Gibraltar based on what I've seen of him so far, but I'm not sure if he'd get away with those jinking runs against Greece (just better defenders). This may well be Coleman's last campaign - does that constitute the "foreseeable future"? (And maybe it does) And we've always got to be flexible enough to allow for a Ferguson exploding onto the scene.

[geysir]

It reminded me of the qualifier v Germany, a tense raucous support, faced with disciplined aggressive defending the very talented Germans only had one or two shots on target, that game even had the spectacle of Wes recklessly giving the ball away in front of goal but it went unpunished, yet this time we are fated to get get nothing in the end. I have absolutely have no issues with fans getting excited for the future, but I'll wait and see how this performance is carried forward, when Greece are beaten home and away, see how we close down Greece trying to play ball out and be able to withstand and play around Greece pressure in our half. Then 3 points or 2 draws v Netherlands who won't be sh'itting themselves this time. This was probably the best time to play France at home after their sky kissing celebratory performance in Paris the other day, we have missed an opportunity.

[SkStu]

I felt that at the time, but didnt want to comment until I'd seen it again on TV. If there were enough power and not across his head, he went for accuracy over power instead of a hybrid approach, that was a goal. A world class save but as Roy Keane says "that's his job". World class keepers will make World class saves. But I do feel nitpicking when saying that, hopefully he recognises that himself though.

Someone yesterday mentioned that Collins could have gone back the other way with more power and I am not convinced that a) it was feasible and b) that Maignan wouldnt have saved that too (you can see from the photo his starting point was very central - he'd likely already started moving right when the photo was taken). I think Collins did pretty much everything right with that header and it was a moment of goalkeeping brilliance.

edit: maybe if he had gone the other way, Maignan would have blocked it and it could have fallen to Idah or Johnston... if and buts...

[tetsujin1979]

France played as well as they needed to play.

France usually play as well as they need to play to win away from home. They don't really blow teams away - in the last ten years, they've scored four goals away from home against Andorra, Moldova, and Belarus.

[tetsujin1979]

Someone yesterday mentioned that Collins could have gone back the other way with more power and I am not convinced that a) it was feasible and b) that Maignan wouldnt have saved that too (you can see from the photo his starting point was very central - he'd likely already started moving right when the photo was taken). I think Collins did pretty much everything right with that header and it was a moment of goalkeeping brilliance.

That's an amazing photo. Collins did everything you would tell a centre half to do in that situation - put the ball in to the hardest place for the keeper to reach it, the top corner. The save was world class, and considering how little he had to do in the game, he still made two saves right at the end of the game to preserve the win for France.

[paul_oshea]

Its not top corner though. People need to stop saying its top corner. its upper right side past halfway between centre and right post but its not top corner.

The photo on rte shows how little mikey micky got to it but yet generated so much power. Egan was over exuberant as well, if he hadnt the ball would have come to our two players on the 18 yard line anyway.

[tetsujin1979]

Top corner

[backstothewall]

Ah stop will ya! If you are on fumes, the first thing to go is your ability to be where you need to be at the time you need to be there and, not far behind that, is your brain letting you know where you need to try to get to. With all respect, that is just a bad take.

With respect that's just not true. Just because you lack the energy to press from the front and chase after lost causes, doesn't mean you can't still play between the lines of the penalty area, offer a at set pieces and take a couple of steps to find a bit of space in the area when the opportunity comes along. We were coming up to the point of the game when we didn't really need his running anymore. Of the remaining 25 minutes there was always going to be 15 of them spent with us camped outside their penalty area.

On the Collins header, it was just an incredible save. The first save was good but you would expect him to make it. The one from Collins he has no right at all to keep out of the goal. Maignan was worth 2 points to France last night.

[pineapple stu]

Top corner

That's an angled photo in fairness. A more central angle shows it was maybe a yard or more inside the post -



I don't think that takes away from either the quality of the header or the save. But it wasn't quite top corner.

[Stuttgart88]

That's an angled photo in fairness. A more central angle shows it was maybe a yard or more inside the post -



I don't think that takes away from either the quality of the header or the save. But it wasn't quite top corner.

His right foot is 60% or more to the right along the goal line and he’s at full stretch. It might not have been in the absolute corner but had it gone in you’d say he scored into the top corner. Constant nitpicking here about everything is driving me nuts.

[Real ale Madrid]

He's 28 until he's 29 - that's how it works.