Portugal v Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 11 October 2025 - 2026 World Cup Qualifier

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elatedscum

Hopefully Portugal are already qualified and head out on the **** before the game in Dublin.

---

Knowing how Ronaldo doesn’t look after his bid, this is a definite possibility

Heartbreaking stuff. A good battling performance. Gave 100% - ref was awful. You’d question a few of the subs - taking off Ebosele rather than Ogbene - taking off Coleman for Egan and moving O’Brien out of the centre with a handful of minutes left, even the change to put Smallbone there, it meant when we conceded we had almost no counter attacking threat compared to the start of the game. Obviously there was very little in the way of chances on our end but the ref was also an issue there, Ebosele and Ogbene were manhandled and didn’t get anything.

There were times where I felt our 11th man was too deep. Manning had one situation where he won the ball back really well near the edge of our box and he looked up and he was the furthest forward player. You’d almost have been as well with Idah starting for his physical attributes considering how deep Ferguson was dropping in.

I thought Kelleher, Coleman, Manning, O’Brien, Collins, Molumby and Ebosele had really good games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elatedscum

Heartbreaking stuff. A good battling performance. Gave 100% - ref was awful. You’d question a few of the subs - taking off Ebosele rather than Ogbene - taking off Coleman for Egan and moving O’Brien out of the centre with a handful of minutes left, even the change to put Smallbone there, it meant when we conceded we had almost no counter attacking threat compared to the start of the game. Obviously there was very little in the way of chances on our end but the ref was also an issue there, Ebosele and Ogbene were manhandled and didn’t get anything.

There were times where I felt our 11th man was too deep. Manning had one situation where he won the ball back really well near the edge of our box and he looked up and he was the furthest forward player. You’d almost have been as well with Idah starting for his physical attributes considering how deep Ferguson was dropping in.

I thought Kelleher, Coleman, Manning, O’Brien, Collins, Molumby and Ebosele had really good games.

---

Ebosele was injured o think, he had gone off just beforehand with maybe a calf issue. He was excellent to be fair.

Agree starting female very little sense when you were going to not have any play. Idah woukd have been ideal and keep ferguson fresh for Tuesday where you will need a bit of invention to get a goal.

Will Coleman andanning have the athleticism to recover for Tuesday,? Hopes they were excellent going in both directions

Cullen suspended is a positive it ensures we bring freshness to midfield.

I wonder are we looking at a narrow 442 on Tuesday with mcateer and Johnson along with moulmby and smallbone with troy and ferguson up top and o brien Collins centre half with Manning and Coleman full backs. That gives you some freshness in the midfield/attack .