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