Luxembourg v Republic of Ireland - Tuesday, 10th June 2025 - Friendly

[Eirambler]

O'Leary
Turned up how many times to make up the numbers in training for a country he has one grandparent from, has played every game for his club for two seasons and quietly waited his turn, in a nothing game, one really nice save, one superb kick right into Fergusons chest ( which he fcuked up ) and solid throughout, steady, calm & catching footballs.

Fair. If that's his only ever cap (and it probably will be with Kelleher, Bazunu and Travers on the scene and all younger than him and Keeley coming through as well) then it's a well deserved one.

[EalingGreen]

Serious question, but what are Luxembourg like? (NI are in the same qualifying group as them.)

[seanfhear]

Is it time to try Ferguson and Phillips at centre-back yet ?

[zero]

Serious question, but what are Luxembourg like? (NI are in the same qualifying group as them.)

not a bad side. a bit like andorra with better players. they try to play decent football and have one or two good players but are weak up top. keep an ok shape but are vulnerable to counter attacks and quick passes behind.

ni would be disappointed not to take full points but they won't be cheap points, keep pressing and high energy levels - should just about be enough.

[pineapple stu]

Surely Luxembourg would be similar to the Luxembourg side the North drew with in November and beat in September?

[Crosby87]

Down to the socks.

[CraftyToePoke]

Fair. If that's his only ever cap (and it probably will be with Kelleher, Bazunu and Travers on the scene and all younger than him and Keeley coming through as well) then it's a well deserved one.

I don't think he sees it that way. Bazunu has a serious injury on his record now & potential unfulfilled doesn't amount to anything. Travers, he'll see himself as better than & could have a point there. Keeley has had one good loan a division down. He's in his prime, undisputed number one at a play offs club in the same division as two, (maybe three of the others for the coming season more than likely) with a finals we can't but qualify for coming soon & I think that's his long game, being in that squad if the chips fall his way & tonight he gave a fine first impression.

He won't win many caps but he might go to a finals these squad turn ups are the groundwork & fair play to him. He's a decent keeper.

[elatedscum]

Ref was really ****. Allowed them to foul and bully and leave bad late tackles without ever pulling them up for it - from the first minute to the last.

O’Leary did well when called upon. Very happy for him.

Thought we were really poor. Probably should have scored 5 though anyway. The two that hit the woodwork, Parrott’s close range miss and offside goal, the McAteer dragged shot where he could have passed instead, Taylor’s other shot from distance, Idah’s acrobatic effort from close range

Positives: defenders did fine at least defensively, Taylor and Ebosele and Finn’s cameos were really positives, kept a clean sheet.

Negatives: shame about Brady’s injury, Ferguson gave us absolutely nothing, Luxembourg a country with 600k population were able to dominate possession against us

[joey B]

When’s the last time a senior international match didn’t have a studio analysis panel? Must be fairly rare ….

[osarusan]

Good to see the manager giving a pretty honest evaluation of the performance, describing it as 'a negative answer to a question', instead of dressing it up as some kind of work in progress.

[pineapple stu]

Thought we were really poor. Probably should have scored 5 though anyway. The two that hit the woodwork, Parrott’s close range miss and offside goal, the McAteer dragged shot where he could have passed instead, Taylor’s other shot from distance, Idah’s acrobatic effort from close range

In fairness, if we should have scored 5 by that metric (including an offside goal and an acrobatic effort that still went about five yards over), we should still have lost when you count O'Leary's two good saves (the only saves of note in the game), Luxembourg hitting the woodwork, etc.

It was a dreadful performance which I do think doesn't bode well for September at all, but in the end of the day it was also a June friendly where we'd left out a few players who would otherwise have started, albeit none of them are exactly world beaters either.

[Predator]

That's four unbeaten for HH, but we are back to not winning matches. I thought the tactical approach was all wrong and it was summed up by our midfield, which was slack, particularly in the first half. The stats tell the story. Luxembourg dominated the ball (58% to 42% possession, 501 passes to our 362). They also had nearly twice as many shots as us.
I get the logic of leaving the majority of the Championship players out, but at the same time I think we needed to use this window to get the best team settled.

[Kingdom]

Evan Ferguson, with the absolute greatest of respects, needs a kick up the hole.

[Kingdom]

Ref was really ****. Allowed them to foul and bully and leave bad late tackles without ever pulling them up for it - from the first minute to the last.

And we more or less allowed them to bully us. Yet again Parrot stands up for himself (NZ Lansdowne springs to mind) and there's no backup. Taylor a couple of times got stuck right in to be fair too.

the only time this squad of players ever looks ready to stand up for itself is when Molumby is playing centre midfield and with all due consideration given to our other options in there, none of them impact a game to that much of an extent that they are head and shoulders above him.

[seanfhear]

Evan Ferguson, with the absolute greatest of respects, needs a kick up the hole.

The Evan Ferguson enigma is another job for Sam Spade, either he is carrying an injury, or something else has gone on that we don't know about ?