Review of Steaua Bucharest -v- Shelbourne
Steaua 4, Shels 1. Steaua progress, winning 4-1 on aggregate
- Any time Shels took the game to Steaua, and in particular when Byrne came forward, Steaua were under pressure. If Byrne was allowed to support Glenn Crowe for longer periods of the game, I think they would have dominated the game. What was Pat Fenlon thinking?
- The red card issued to the two players was a gross over reaction by the ref, IMO, and took a lot from the spectacle. A yellow to Rogers as a warning for the slap, and one for Dica for the bad acting would have been plenty.
- Dean Delaney is a poor replacement for Williams.
- How can the current EL champions put out a defence which hoofed out 75% of the possession they got, which gave the ball straight back to Steaua? It was depressing to watch Shels trying to win possession, only to give it right back to them without a fight. I only saw Steaua give the ball away like that three times in the whole game.
- Even with the ill-advised tactic of the hoofing out, and the bad decision to play Byrne deep, Steaua still could not put Shels away without the three goals gifted to them. These are positive things to come out of this encounter. Pat Fenlon can hit the nail on the head with his plain talking. In the run-up to this match, he gave his opinion that Irish soccer has managed to close the gap in standards with Europe in fitness, ability, and performance on the pitch. Based on the Steaua match, Shels employed poor tactics, ye had a bit of bad luck with the gifted goals, and maybe there were a few moments when the pressure of the occasion made players nervy. Take out those factors, and Fenlon was right. The EL can hold its head high in European competition, so long as the better teams make it into the competitions.
- Ndo is magic!!! He is a pleasure to watch.
- I really hope that Shels make it into a decent European competition next season. Ye bring a lot of credit to the EL.
That's it for me. Truce over, now it's back to being a CCFC fan.
