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It's the final leg, first leg 0-0, second leg France are 1-0 up, it's the final minute of extra time, Given gives it a long punt forward, Robbie and the French keeper rush for the ball, the keeper slips and Robbie taps the ball towards the back of the net just as a giant green inflatable leprechaun trundles across the face of the goal, deflecting Robbies tap-in wide :D
Game over.
(AGG Predictions)
Ireland 1-1 France
(Ireland on away goals)
Portugal 3-1 Bosnia
Greece 1-2 Ukraine
Russia 3-2 Slovenia
New Zealand 1-0 Bahrain
Costa Rica 2-3 Uruguay
The ref, knowing the furore of the liverpool game, restarts play correctly with a drop ball on the six yard line, whereupon richard dunne goes for it and kicks it so hard the ball, two french players, the referee and the inflatable leprechaun end up bursting through the net.Quote:
Originally Posted by tricky_colour
France have scored in every game, but only kept 2 clean sheets away from home (VS Faroes and Lithuania), so I'd definitely fancy us to score in Croke Park
Same situation at home, only 2 clean sheets, oddly enough against the same 2 teams.
Under Trapattoni, we've never conceded more than two goals in a competitive game, and was against Italy. We've kept 2 clean sheets at home (Cyprus and Montenegro) and the Montenengrins are the only team to keep us scoreless, failing to score against them twice.
going on that, I'd say beat the French 2-1 at home, draw 1-1 away?
Head: 4-2 aggregate win for France
Heart: Ireland win on away goals.
don't you tip us to lose every game though? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by weldoninhio
You had us to lose 3-0 to Italy, 3-0 to Bulgaria and 2-0 to Cyprus. Hope you're not a gambler!Quote:
Originally Posted by weldoninhio
One, if not two dodgy reffing decisions.
France qualify. And we, rightly, blame Platini.
OK..
Croke Park. 2-0 Home win. Doyle with a deflected shot from distance (attempting another Slovakia type goal) and Dunne from a set peice. France retain alot of posession without ever threatening. France's level of confidence that they can easily turn it around on the return leg only disipates after Dunne heads in from a corner between the 70th and 80th minute.
Stade de France. France go 2 up before fifty minutes. Sublime first half goal from Henry, followed by a tap in after being punnished for a Kilbane slip early in the second half. Then a half hour of French pressure prior to a scrappy Robbie Keane effort in the area, against the run of play in the 81st...
Aggregate Score 3-2 to England B....
My pants would well and truly be spoiled if that happened. Henry would probably just go up a minute later and score though!Quote:
Originally Posted by stiffler
yeh spot on...this Ireland team is now famous for conceding soft goals soon after they have scored themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by Torn-Ado
I honestly think if we could solve that problem of conceding soft goals we'd have beaten Italy twice and do well at the world cup, maybe even semi-finals.
It's our Achilles heal really.
In fact our 3 goals conceded against Italy were very soft.
Just occurred to me, does anyone know any medium or person good at predicting the future? Might be worth seeing what they say.
Despite the presence of Dunne, I don't think we are very good at the back, defending set pieces.
Over the balance of play from set pieces, is there more panic caused in our box defending them than we can create at the other end through our own set pieces?
Hard for me to tell, for obvious reasons.
No, it will definitely be in a French Stadium! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by blobbyblob
If it's like '06, we'll have nearly half the support in Paris, and not score many, but this time we'll stay unbeaten.
0-0 Paris
1-1 Croke Park
Surprised no one has come out yet with a prediction of us getting beaten 4-0 in Croke Park like in the build up to the Italy game.
Personally Im changing my view on the playoff every 5 minutes. I fully believe we can win it. At times in the last 24 hours I was 100% certain we will win it.
But Im also getting times where I can see a scenario where France get an early goal in Croker leaving us with a massive uphill struggle where we will fight to the last minute of the 2nd leg and just not do enough and we will be looking back on another what if.... with 3 weeks or so to the games I'll prob only change my mind another few thousand times!
Well that’s better than us getting an early goal in Croker!Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
2-1 to Ireland in Dublin
2-1 to France in Paris
Robbie extra time winner
What if:
0-0 Croke Park.
We are wining 1-0 with 2 minutes to go in Paree, Malouda is released midfield and we are outnumbered, McGeady says “och, fceking away wit ye” dives in from behind two-footed, wrecks Malouda’s heel, McGeady is sent off, we win 1-0 and qualify………………….Would McGeady miss any of the World Cup games ?!!
think all yellow cards are wiped out before the start of the competition?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scram
I think a red card ban is carried over to the finals though.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
ROI 1-0 France
France 2-1 ROI
Easy.
I think that’s the most credible positive prediction I’ve seen so far, other than…it means us keeping a clean sheet in Croker…Ribery out, who knows.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
Honestly, I don't think the French are anything to fear. On rare occasions they are devastating but often they are lethargic and disjointed. I'd bank on the latter happening in both legs of the play-off, but nerves on both sides will ensure it's a close one.
We need to beat the bejaysus out of them in terms of tackling, hassling, and pressuring. A bit like the way Roy Keane set the tone for the dutch game with his welcome to lansdowne road tackle on Overmars.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cymro
And of course .. a wall of noise at Croker and in Paris from the Irish fans. It will no doubt be close though as you said .. with the capacity for one moment of genius on the French part .. and of course the commercial pressures of having Ribery, Henry, Benzema and co at the World Cup which hopefully won't manifest itself in a dodgy decision.
ROI 1-0 France
France 1-1 ROI
Head tells me 1-1. Heart 2-1. I can't see us holding out for a 1-0 or even 0-0. But unlike the last time we played them in Dublin I feel we can score against them both at home and away. Even if we lose 1-2 at home I feel we can go to Paris and retrieve the game. We have proved against Italy and Bulgaria that we can hang in there in a big game. And maybe 40% of the time the team that hangs in there gets the result in the end. I don't feel they will be in the least bit bothered about playing in Croke park. And nor do I feel we will be bothered about playing away in Paris.
2-1 French Fries on a late, heart breaking goal from Henry as he waves his magic wand one last time.
I then drown my sorrows and wake up in an alleyway with no pants on sometime Sunday afternoon.
every chance it could be 1 all in both games and then penalties
These scorelines again would go down a treat. World Cup 74 qualifying 2-1 in Dalymount 1972 (Treacy scored winner late in game. Terrible, scary crowd crush leaving ground as a kid). Then drew 1-1 in Paris (Mick Martin?).
you forgot the bit at the end "with a sore ass".Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
I can see them scoring in croker. I can actually see us going ahead in croker and they then scoring and it finishing 1-1.
If Henry doesn't start it'll be two draws.
If he does he'll grab something for them.
Other than him the rest of their attacking talent is either injured (Ribery), off form (Benzema) or nothing worth fearing.
Henry is hardly on form either... and I doubt he's back to his best as he is still recovering from injury.Quote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
Benzema scored midweek... so let's wait and see how he does this weekend before we go and say he's off-form.
Also, you cannot rule out their third attacker, whether it be Govou or Malouda, or someone else.
Nearly crashed the car a half hour ago when I heard Mark Lawrenson say that he thinks we will go through. Dunno if I was more surprised by the prediction or that he didnt say that we dont have enough good players like he usually does
Great time to be a football fan at the moment, the anticipation of the game is reminiscent of the glory days.I genuinely feel we will go through, despite not winning either game.1 1 in Dublin, 2 2 in Paris.
I think Trap's experience and tactics, although staid at times, will make up for any difference in quality, just as there was a difference in quality between us and the Italian players, the vast majority of whom are regular Champions League players.
If we keep it tight we have a chance and may well sneak a winning goal somewhere. I worry though about our defence which tends to leak soft goals. It's going to be tight I would say and the winning team will probably win by the odd goal. I hope it's Ireland.
My other prediction is that the RTE pundits, if Ireland do well, will say, this is the worst French team ever. You can put your money on that and also that they won't give the manager an ounce of credit for turning a team of underachievers into a team who are hard to defeat and have a lot of fight in them.
A lot of the pundits who were criticising Ireland during the campaign are now trying their best to jump on Trapattoni's bandwagon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
It makes you wonder if these pundits know any more than the rest of us.
Qualification is really all that matters, given the frustration suffered by the fans in the last 7 or so years. The style of play doesn't matter, the entertainment value doesn't matter, what matters is we make progress up the FIFA rankings.
what if we dont qualify Emmet? How does his achievement rank then? 4 wins and 6 draws plus whatever happens against France. Add in the performances to date to non-qualification and suddenly it doesnt look so good. But by then its too late for questions cos its just another case of us not qualifying...
The most optimistic I can be is 0-0 home 1-1 away. Sweet way to qualify.Quote:
Originally Posted by macdermesser
But honestly, I see France 2-1 at Croker and 1-0 in Paris.
Remember the poisonous atmosphere at Croker at fulltime in the Cyprus game under Stan?....since then we have become competitive, hard to beat, brought the world champions within minutes of defeat.There have been numerous highs, Robbies late goal in Bari, Whelans screamer in Croker, Dunnes bullet header in Sofia.Think of the individual highs under Stan and Kerr.......exactly , not a lot.France are coming to town on the 14th, enjoy it, we're far from perfect, but have travelled quite a distance in a short space of time.Scotland Wales Norn Iron would love to be in our position.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
so the difference is we will have memories of nearly winning but nothing to show for it other than that.
Oh okay then.
You are right...we'd be much better under Stan and Kerr...maybe it was a mistake for us to get rid of Stan...if we kept him on, we'd be playing lovely free flowing football now, we'd have cruised through the group, hammered the Italians, got revenge on the Cypriots by thrashing them home and away.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
We'd have won 10, lost none and drawn none, goals for 50, against 0. Bring back Stan.