Post Match and looking ahead

Lads.... im gutted. Any neutral watching that game last night would be amazed that we came through a group unbeaten. France taught us a lesson from the word go. Anelka was immense and we were lucky not to lose by more.

Andrews had a nightmare.... summed up the night when the most creative thing he could think off was to kick ball off oponent for a throw in the from the exact same place he had recieved the ball from. This was when we were chasing game and in the end he booted the ball straight out.

But..... im an optimist and its only half time. Our "system" negates any potential home advantage so im thinking we could still get something if France get complacent and we hit them with an early goal. Robbie still seems confident which is good to see and hes due a goal. Infact we are due a goal... when was the last time we went three on trot without scoring? so I still think we will nick one over there.

I said to my mate before kick off... if we lose by one were practically out. Lose by 2 and were out. that still how i feel

Key to wednesday - early goal and somehow get tighter on Anelka

maybe... just maybe

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

We had 3 or 4 very clear cut chances. France had less than that. Had Lawrence put the ball in the back of the net in the first half we may well have won.

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Wouldn't have stood anyway. Linesman had his flag up.

I'm afraid the stereotype of the plucky underdog with little skill but having the determination to beat the team of superstars didn't hold true. France wanted it more, had more fight in the them and ultimately thats why they won. They didn't win because of any individual brilliance.

It is not over yet by any means, come on lads we can do this.

Lets be optimistic yet realistic, french are a shambles atm and we failed to capitalize.
We all know now we are on the all out attack on wednesday, and the french defence is pants, really we could do with Andy Reid, Stephen Ireland etc.
McGeady/Keane/Doyle/Duff should be enough to nab a goal or two.
Anelka was well lucky with that goal, Henry's half the player he was in his day, defence is a shambles.

We just need to retain possesion better, tire them chasing the ball...

Should Lawrence play? sure he works hard but theres nothing special about him imo.McGeady and Duffers all the way...

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Originally Posted by northerncelt

Lads.... im gutted. Any neutral watching that game last night would be amazed that we came through a group unbeaten.

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yeah, but we weren't playing in a group full of Frances.

Anyway, I think France were very disciplined in not conceding any frees anywhere near their box. Duff, the master at drawing fouls, was hardly fouled at all. This will be our best chance.

We went to Bulgaria and took a deserved lead. I think that's what we need to look at replicating here.

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Originally Posted by Riddickcule

french are a shambles atm

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They didn't look shambolic to me. They always blow hot & cold in qualifying but always get there. That's what the big teams do. Why must we always put ourselves down by putting the quality of opposition down?

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Originally Posted by MeathDrog

Wouldn't have stood anyway. Linesman had his flag up.

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The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Just listening to the RTE panel now.

Everybody keeps talking about gears!!!

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:D
Yeah, I just had a listen to that at half time.
Now I know where all the gear talk came from.

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Originally Posted by geysir

The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.

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Exactly right, on both counts.

In fact it wasn't an unrealistic penalty shout, and it was a half decent chance for Keane. The French keeper did really well in both of the one-on-ones he faced. Very sound game all round.

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Originally Posted by geysir

The linesman had his flag pointed to indicate a goal kick. There was no infringement.

Though I can understand why Weldoninhio would be so eager to appreciate the idea that even if converted the chance would not have stood.

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you could be right, but I could've sworn he was waving the flag beforehand too.

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Originally Posted by rambler14

-The Referee. Worst I have seen in Croke Park. him and his officiating team were a disgrace. His performence brought me back to the e-mail received by the RTE panel on the Web Extra show after the Italy game about the possibilty of referee bias toward the seeded team. Well last night was proof of it existing. I mean at one stage Evra cleared the ball off the line after a deflected shot by Andrews which hit Diarra along the way and what did the ref give??? A feckin goal-kick!:mad:

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wow football is a funny old game - I thought the ref and the linesman were excellent:)

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

wow football is a funny old game - I thought the ref and the linesman were excellent:)

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Really? I thought that was the worst ref and linesmen we have had this campaign!!

He was a sound ref who was not easily fooled, I hope the Swede is up to the same standard.

RTE showed the penalty conceded by Carsley in the play off against Turkey.
Looked to be no doubt that Anders was correct to award it, more so for the dodgy movement of Carsley's shoulder.

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Originally Posted by stiffler

Really? I thought that was the worst ref and linesmen we have had this campaign!!

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I thought the ref was good, but the linesmen weren't up to the standard needed for such an important game.

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Originally Posted by Jicked

Well there goes all that about this French team being poor and there for the taking. They were quality,

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Disagree. Spain, Brasil and possibly England would murder them.

the referee had a good game. Left it flow and issued no silly cards...linesman were indifferent....Believe and hope..

Was at the game last night and have watched the game back again today.
Gutted, so gutted, im usually positive but I just cant see us going through now. A few points:

The lads worked their socks off and their commitment cant be faulted.
An excellent first half, at half time I thought we had marginally been the better team and I was confident we'd sneak it.

The goal was coming with about 15 mins, I think most of us in the ground could see that. Im not sure if it was a case of the French up'd it a gear or if we tired but I felt Trap shouldve changed things as we were defending deeper and deeper and creating little.

Our weak midfield was eventually going to catch up with us and it did last night. We minimised the french threat as much as possible but as the game went on we became more ragged and were lucky not to concede a second (Gignac missed a sitter). They simply possess a very greater degree of quality to us.

A Reid may well have made a difference last night but I feel the type of player we really lack is S Reid. A player strong on the ball and in the tackle. Our midfield very rarely get their foot on the ball and dictate play.......this was necessary in the first 20 mins of the second half last night when we were on the rack but it never happened. All we did was long ball straight back to the french or if we were lucky Doyle and Keane would create miracles and manage to win a throw or hold it up.

Set pieces was an area many of us had identified before hand that we could exploit. I think the French recognised these and gave away very few frees within decent range of their goal. They stood off Duff and minimised the number of fouls he drew. This is an area we need to improve on for wed. As we cant rely on our midfield to get us up the park we need to get as many set piece opportunities has we can. The few deliveries we had were in general poor bar the one effort flicked on by Dunne which almost landed for JOSH.

Was not happy with ref and linesmen last night, think they gave more decisions the french way. Having said that, the French could very easily have got a penalty when evra went down.

For some reason the Belgium playoff keeps coming to mind. 20 mins into the away game, we were in the exact same boat as we are now. An away goal down and needing to score................we nearly did it that night and probably shouldve so who knows.

Finally, any opinions on how the French will play wed, will they be conservative and try and defend their lead or will they attack?? Its a difficult one for them and i think first and foremost they wont want us to score. I can see it been scoreless with about 20 mins to go and by that stage Trap will have to go for it. I cant see him sending the lads out to attack too early.

The linesman was very alert to flag the French guy for offside when Dunne lost concentration. I'd say 9 out of 10 would have waved play on.

It's amazing how what was plain for me to see was seen so differently by others. Andrews had a nightmare? Not in my book - it was his best game yet for us in my opinion. Referee awful? Perfectly decent in my opinion and very lenient towards Andrews. One or two weird decisions - the "foul" after a goalmout scramble which ended in a Keane overhead kick where I saw nothing for example. He might have given us a penno for handball but it was a hard one to see and call as deliberate.

Some say Doyle was poor. Amazing really.

Funny thing is: people - including me at times - complain about the way we play, the way we cede possession, the way we rely on unglamourous methods in attack...

Yet get this: last night we created more clear cut chances and conceded fewer chances than we did against France in 2005, and lost to a lucky goal. We had Roy Keane & Andy Reid then and played the type of game most want to see us play now.

The reason I still have hope is that football is not rocket science. We were comprehensively stuffed in Stuttgart yet only conceded a cruel deflection and Dunne missed a gilt edged chance late on, Keane narrowly missing in the first minute. If a few of these marginal ones go our way instead of theirs we have hope. Like Trap says, maybe we'll get a deflection this time.

Scotland lost 2-0 to England at Hampden in 2000 and yet won the return 1-0, only Seaman preventing a 2-0 win for Scotland at Wembley (or was it the crossbar?).

I think we will sneak one in Paris in first half, we had chances in Dublin and I suspect something similar will fall our way and we'll capitalise on it this time, but the way the Irish midfield tried in second half was worrying but if you haven't got the players that to hold possession then logic dictates you will be chasing it.
There is no obvious panacea or silver bullet tactic for Paris but I think you'll see Ireland giving it a real shot on Wednesday. If Scotland and Greece can do it then so can we. Its Halftime we know what these guys are about now its time to capitalise on our away from home form.

Incidently I was at match last night great atmosphere etc but a question did cross my mind and that is - how big in real terms is home advantage? Watching in the stands the irish fans booed and cajoled the french players in possession in the first half..I wondered does this really affect these guys at all, afterall they are all pros who play in hostile stadium all over Europe week in week out, a few fans booing them matters nought in my opinion and likewise shouldn't matter for Irish players in Paris either.

Its Halftime roll on the second half!

Abidal out of wednesday's game according to Sky Sports News

France are 1/25 to qualify :eek:

That's a sobering thought.

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

Those odds are slightly distorted maybe. William Hill over here suggests 1/10 and 11/2. Deduct the bookie's margin (the odds add to ca. 106%), they have it effectively 86:14 in France's favor, or 1/6 and 6/1.

Bonne chance.

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by Gather round

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

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Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

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Originally Posted by Murfinator

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

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I hate when people call Thierry Henry 'arrogant'. He is one of the great football professionals of our time. All the people booing him last night when he took the corners should be thankful they had the opportunity to watch such a fantastic footballer in person. I had no qualms about singing his song last night on numerous occasions.

Agreed about Henry, he is a class act, both on and off the pitch.

Don't know about his spats with his boss Domenech, I suppose that doesn't count.

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Originally Posted by galwayjames

Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

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Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

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Originally Posted by carloz

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

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He'll be turned into Lasagne! ;)

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Originally Posted by carloz

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

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Hopefully no one will do something daft and get sent off early.

If the games up for Ireland then in the last ten seconds some one can let him have it.

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Originally Posted by geysir

France are 1/25 to qualify :eek:

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To put that into perspective, they were the same odds on the government winning the Lisbon ref. We know what happened then.

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Originally Posted by Gather round

Bonne chance.

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Thank you

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Originally Posted by mypost

To put that into perspective, they were the same odds on the government winning the Lisbon ref. We know what happened then.

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They lost the first leg, won the second leg and it went through?

Happy days:D

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Originally Posted by Crosby87

I think that was an awesome post, Emmet. Its obvious you take care in making it. I think it is blog worthy.
It sums up my opinion almost 100%.

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well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

Gutted. Dejected. Inconsolible. Proud.
Those were the feelings leaving the ground. Felt the team gave their all, but were beaten by a better collection of players. Atmosphere was very good, probably the best in Croker. Hard to pick a best or worst player on the night.

On the face of it France seemed to step it up in the 2nd half, and the goal was coming. Gourcuff had a fantastic game for France, and like Pirlo for Italy ran the show and drifted into spaces effortlessly which players aren't able to do.
Thought Lloris had a fantastic game for France. 4 times I counted where balls came into the area between the penalty spot and the line and he claimed each one.

The Irish lads again seemed jaded about the hour mark, not surprising given the hustling.

Thought McGeady could have been brought on quicker, I have to be honest. 15mins isn't fair.

A real tough assignment now on Weds. I'm not hopeful, but, and its a massive one, if we were to score first it would really put the cat among the pidgeons.

Allez les verts.

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Originally Posted by wexfordman

Man so gutted after that, just back from the game i would like to watch the highlights on tv again.

Firstly i know i am biased on this but emmet a lot of the stuff you are saying about doyle is bull. Yes Doyle was poor away to italy when at a time he was playing with the injury that later in the season required surgery to cure, italy at home he was only returning following said injury.

But you question his workrate in tonights game when once again he has ran himself into the ground for the team, plus constantly competing with 2 centre halves in the air for all our kick outs and long deliveries. he is not the tallest of strikers but has a fantastic leap and whins far more than the 1 in 5 headers you suggest plus any header he looses the defenders clearing header does not travel far clear because of his commitment to challenging the defense in the air.

You praise keane work rate tonight and tell people who were questioning this before hand to take note. Well i was happier with robbie tonight than a lot of games in the past but imo this is the effort he should give everytime he pulls on the green jersey.

Often for example if ireland are attacking up the right wing and robbie is the nearest striker to the player with the ball he will make no effort to make himself available and so doyle will have to make the hard yards and run down the channel to give our midfielder an option. He will not compete in the air for headers and has the uncanny ability to 9/10 make the run into the wrong position following doyles knock on.

Plus you question doyle's ability to hold up the ball and be pyhcisal when he gave a master class in making himself available for every throw and set piece taking in hard won balls and getting them under control making space and recycling clean possesion to kick start attacks. Until he was substitued and the bigger stronger and fresher Best came on and lost every 50/50 ball against a tiring backline, one which kick started the counter attack to the french goal.

anyway long rant over except for the one aspect of all irish players i was disappointed by not one irish player was prepared to make that one cynical tackle to disturb and upset Gorcuff and to a lesser extent Lasanna diarra, anelka, sagna or henry frances most influential players on the night, come in late take a yellow and let them no they are in a war and see how the react. yes some great tough clean tackle were executed tonight but sometimes one late bookable tackle upsets a team more.

Also as we did not get many corners or frees near the box but an abundance of throws i wished to see Delap's name on the program. i think the french would hate to face his aerial bombardment
Anyawy off to paris on monday all we need is a win the tie is still alive JUST.

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I actually think Delap's throw in would be a serious weapon against them

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

A few things that seem to have been missed. Doyle was crocked late in the first half and limped for 5 minutes thereafter. He was never the same after that and I expected him to be subbed earlier. I thought up to that he had done very well, winning most things in the air.

i was at the game but studied in on video this am. Whelan tracks Anelka for the build up to the goal and then loses him at the crucial moment.

Lawrence was excellent. A real find for someone not getting his game regularly.

Messrs Giles and Drunkphy wanted us to attack in numbers. Could you imagine what France would do to us in a quick counter-attack (e.g. like Itlay did in the last minute).Apart from the start of the 2nd half and a 10 minute spell leading up to the goal, we matched the French. I don't recall a save by Shay other than one or two right at him.

We are suited for away games. I go to Paris not without hope. I think we were always going to have to go to France and score there. Nothing has changed except we'll have to score more than them.

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Good point. We looked most vulnerable after the goal when we threw a bit of caution to the wind. It's a high risk strategy. Can't see Trap changing much and if we can keep them out for most of the game we may sneak a 1-0 and bring it to extra time...but in reality it's hard to see the French not scoring considering they play with three strikers and an attacking midfielder.

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Originally Posted by carloz

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

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If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.I'd love to know what he said.I suppose insulting Irish people can't be described as "racist" because Irishness isn't exactly a race, but it would be very intersting to see if UEFA / FIFA would punish him if anybody made a complaint.

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Originally Posted by Den Perry

well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

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I am going to put you on ignore now because it's blatent you know nothing about football.

Andews was our best player in the first half, he did his job, the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion, do you remember that. He was faultless in the first half. He put his body on the line time after time such as when he was elbowed in the face.

In the second half he tired but was still ok. Anyone who says Andrews was poor in the first half is an idiot and not worth listening to and i don't care who they claim to be. There are a lot of idiots with no knowledge of the game in Ireland masquarading as experts.

Doyle is not up to the task of delivering us a goal. I can explain the technical reasons but I doubt a person of your limited intellect would understand, but for the benefit of others, Doyle receives the ball 90% of the time with his back to goal. That makes the job of scoring much more difficult. The best way to score as a forward is facing goal and running onto a ball, usually over the top or else run onto a knockdown as Keane did in Bari and when he was facing goal. Letting Doyle have the ball to his feet and facing away from goal is pointless. What will he do? Lay it off to some other player of limited ability? Who then lashes a high ball into the box with only Keane to compete against two tall centre backs.

People say Doyle is good at holding the ball up and waiting for suppport. Again that's no use to us. When he holds it up like that, he also holds it up for the French defence to get back into position. That's one of the reasons Doyle is so easy to counter. He has lost a few yards of pace with injury and can't run onto a through ball, hold off players with his strength and score. It won't get any better in the next 3 days.

But of course people like Den Perry have no interest in the technical side of soccer. They are more interested in listening to journos and parroting their obsession with Andy Reid.

Andy Reid would be useless without quick strong forwards to run onto his passes. He has strong forwards to run onto his passes at Sunderland and who are lethal finishers. He has Kenwan Jones to aim his crosses at. We don't have that at Ireland. We don't have any clinical finishers. Our system is not set up to allow our forwards score in big games. They have only scored one between them in our 7 biggest games, and even that was scored when Doyle wasn't on the field.

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Originally Posted by Den Perry

If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.

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Jesus, the stress is really getting to people on this thread - some bizarre posts.

Den, I love the spirit. :)
But if you feel that strongly about it, maybe run on to the pitch in Paris and do it yourself. Don't wear green though. I'd rather see my "warriors" win the important fight.

Apparantley Diarra was heard saying the tie was over and that Andrews was an Irish c**t or something to that effect. I think the scuffle at the end was exactly what we need going into Wednesday because surely this will rile up the likes of Dunne and Andrews and its going to be a hell of a first ten mins in Paris!!

Early goal and its game on again. Score first and we'll win it! Believe!! Cmon Ireland