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Excellent result! I was convinced that the French would win. If we now beat Israel at home we will have 2 points on the French. They have to come to Dublin for the win now. This is a solid result for us and we can only hope that hey do the same to the Swiss.
Yes, I agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fergie's Son
Another good news from this match is that both Tal Ben-Haim and Walid Badir were booked as the second yellow card in the qualifiers.
They will miss the match in Dublin! :)
All the help we can get, the better :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldad
2 of the 3 players I knew before the Israel game on Saturday are suspended. :) Great news for Ireland.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldad
Looks like Barthez should have stayed at home after all, absolute clanger for the Israeli equaliser, he dropped an easy cross right into the path of the Israeli player giving him an easy tap in (not that im complaining one bit), that together with the red card of Trezuguet (who might get a lengthy ban as it was a head-butt) will hopefully take the pressure of Domenech and keep him in a job by the time they visit us. All in all a great result for us.
Shame the Cypriots couldnt hold out against the Swiss, also only one Swiss player was booked (L'onfat). The Cypriot keeper, Nicos Panagiotou, was sent off at the end, but he'll only miss their game vs Faroes, and will be back for their game in Nicosia against the Swiss so hopefully that will be a draw.
David Trezuguet will miss the France's home match against the Faroes.
If France won't win the Faroes at home... They don't deserve to play in Germany 2006!
I thought Israel did really well tonight...France were very poor yet again and look like they might be the ones to miss out on one of the top two spots and deservedly so. Israel will come to Dublin full of confidence now which they have earned. I think we should be too strong for them with a full crowd of fans fully behind the team we should get the result. The anti-Kerr stuff goin on will be behind us by then we need to make home anvantage count. Not a bad set us results tonight. Cant believe the Swiss nearly slipped up but still it lowers their goal average which isn't half bad. Role on June and lets get back to winning ways!
I know I will probably be slated for this but would it been so bad if israel had lost tonight - i am more worried bout them than france......if they had lost they would of had to come to dublin looking for a win which would open them up a bit - i hate when we have to look for goals against such stubborn teams
Great result for Israel last night. Delighted for them. Israel have a nice run in also, they have to play us in Lansdown, Swiss away and the Faroes both home and away. Dont write them off. Wouldnt it be great if they got a play-off spot (second in the group to us of course)? Just lookin at the rest of the group tables this morning. Our group is by far the tightest. Any of the top four are in with a chance of topping the group. Amazing string of results. Also from what I can see - the French dont have a game now until September 3rd!!! Is this right?
Yep, they have the Faroes at home on the 3rd and us away on the 7th. Then the Swiss away and Cyprus at home.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawn_Run
The fact that he got a red does it mean that he'll be suspended for the next 2 internationals? Said it on Sentata Sports last night but I don't think he does??? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldad
In the Indo today that he might miss three of France's four remaining fixtures through suspensionQuote:
Originally Posted by Eire06
surely headbutting an opponent is a two match ban can anyone clarify this?? also the loss of Tal Ben Haim for Israel is massive, a big advantage for our attacking players in Lansdowne
I think it could be a 3 game ban for violent conduct. Wasn't Djibril Cisse banned for 3 games for an U21 offence, ruling him out of Euro2004? Trez is a vastly overrated player anyway.
I was looking at the fixture list last night and working out the different permutations. If the French beat the Faroes and get a draw against us at Lansdowne, they will have 14 points with 2 games to go. Hopefully we should have 16 points with 2 games to go. However, it is quite possible that the Swiss will have 18 points (if they beat Cyprus away and Israel at home, which is a big IF!). If that is the case, the French will go to Basle needing a victory. That means that France will be under huge pressure for the rest of this group. By losing 4 points against Israel, there is little or no margin of error for the French. If we win 4 and draw 1 of our remaining 5 games we will top the group.Quote:
Originally Posted by cullenswood
As far as I've read, Tal Ben Haim is the boss of that defence. He certainly was against us. Without wishing to hype it up, it could be equivalent to us losing Kenny.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reality Bites
The top four teams have all drawn against each other, if I'm not mistaken.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheJamaicanP.M.
So barring a slip-up against the bottom two, which would be a disaster, it's all about which of the top four can win against the other three.
Us having all three at home does give us a slight advantage, but it's going to be very tight.
Lads as far as Im concerned now our big game is the Israel one, they looked every bit as good if not better than france last night. If we beat them it sets the tone for the last few games, if not it will leave a big disappointment. We should beat them but 3 points in that game is the key to us topping this group imo
Arik Benado is the leader of that defence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Donal81
He has already played for the Israeli team for many years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elroy
I agree if we beat Israel then we will be 2 points ahead with a game in hand and we will be two points ahead of France also. I think june is going to be very interesting. If we can get 6 points which we must do we will be in a very strong positioin in the group. I think that the results against Israel are going to be very important in this group. If we beat israel at home it means france have to come to Dublin and win and it also means that Switzerland haev to beat Israel at home in September. I think it will be a vital day as far as the group is concerned. If we win we will be the first team to draw blood from this little mini league of ours.
Both Haim and Badir have played every game for Israel so far. They will be big loses. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Eldad
as mentioned before - I really think that whoever wins first against one of the top four will have a major physological advantage - we can do that against isreal - i think if we win that we will kick on and win the group..of course my main priority is ireland qualifying but just to put the icing on the cake I would like to give the swiss a good beating .... i dont know why but for a normally small inoffensive country they have really got up my nose the last 3 years
As one Irish journalist noted a few months ago, little did we think we would become such an enemy of the most neutral nation in the world. Like yourself, I think we owe the Swiss a good hiding. Remember all those nasty late tackles they put in during the game in Basle. Bring 'em on.Quote:
Originally Posted by concanta
OK, here's arguably the most boring post ever put up on this board, but here goes:
Looking at the combos again, 4 wins and a draw does not guarantee we win the group outright. If the draw is against Switzerland and we both beat France then we tie.
But:
3 wins and two draws could still get us first place if Switzerland and France draw again. 3 wins and 2 draws guarantees second in any event.
Even if we lose to France in Dublin, 4 wins would mean we win the group if its another draw in Basle.
Or if we lost at home to Switzerland, a draw at home to France would still get us second if France doesn't win in Basle (i.e., 3 wins, 1 draw , 1 defeat might still be even enough for 2nd).
Again, even if we only draw one of the Cyprus or Israel games, a draw against each of France and Switzerland at home would get us second if Switzerland beats France, tie us for second if Swiss and France draw, but only third if France wins.
It really is very tight but you've got to feel that we're short odds on coming at least second. I'd love to know what Domenech's astrology charts are saying!
Based on last night's performance the Swiss can't necessarily count on 6 points from Israel home and Cyprus away (not that we can either!).
As said above, drawing first blood in the "mini-league" will indeed be a big psychological boost. At the moment none of the top 4 can go anywhere confident of a win!
Does anyone know the kick-off times on 8th October? Do we play Cyprus before, after or at the same time as the Swiss v France game?
Beating israel will be massive boost to our hopes and it could work to our favour in another way - if we beat them it still leaves them a chance of qualification - so they will have all the incentive to get a result in basle
this team will beat israel
given
finnan
cunningham
o brien
o shea
reid
kavanagh
kilbane
duff
keane
morison
Stuttgart,- You must of put a good bit of time into that post, Fair Play.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I feel that the Swiss & Israel games are the most Vital for victories. No matter how bad France are playing(and its very bad at the moment) they still arent losing games and remain very hard to beat or even score against(barring Barthez howler last nite). It'l be very hard to beat them, even at home.
Assuming we beat the minnows I'm counting on us winning the group with 2 wins and a draw against the top 3. None of the top 4 have beaten each other, obviously none of us have lost against each other. I just can't see us and the Swiss going down to the last day having both of us won our last 4 matches (a total of 8 wins and no defeats in such a tight group). It is extremely unlikely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Just did a little check up. Cyprus's two Saturday kickoffs have been at 3.00 GMT and 4.00 GMT. Switzerland's only Saturday kickoff has been at 3.30 GMT. So around the same time it looks. :)Quote:
Does anyone know the kick-off times on 8th October? Do we play Cyprus before, after or at the same time as the Swiss v France game?
I think Aiden McGeady is good enough to play for senior team.Quote:
Originally Posted by concanta
The Anti-Kerr brigade will have disbanded, after we've achived the following P7 W4 D3 L0 Pts15 by the summer. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy
Despite all the computations and calculations, it will come down to the final game against the Swiss, of that I'm sure, like it did last time.
They have replaced the Dutch as our bogey side. We will need an atmosphere and performance to match the 1-0 at home over Holland. Lady luck, the Irish fans and Duffer will all have to be on their game that day. :D
I'm a lot happier now than I was on Friday. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy
Ignoring the last match (against the Swiss) for a second. From our next 4 matches, all we need to do it win 3 and draw 1 (it doesn't matter which one is drawn). If that happens we beat the Swiss in our last match and we win the group. That is basically the minimum be need to do to draw this group.Quote:
barring any other results and i mean, waht min do we need to secure second place and again bar any other results min we need to get 1st???
The minimum we need to finish 2nd is 3 wins and 2 draws from our remaining matches.
So at the end of the day, if we draw one of our next four games it doesn't really make much difference as all we are still aiming to win the rest of our matches.
Right on BrotherQuote:
Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy
I'd like to ask the anti Kerr guys just exactly how they would replace him . There wasnt exactly a plethora of high calibre applicants the last time the job was advertised.
Kicking us out of the last euro competition can do that. At least this time we have drawn in Basel in this qualifier, instead of losing. Now we just need to beat them at home and that would definitely put us in a great position to go to Germany. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by concanta
Quote:
Originally Posted by Conor74
I haven't seen the France vs Switzerland game but from what I hear our draw was far more comfortable than Switzerland's or Israel's.
We could have scored a few times - Clinton was through or nearly through a couple of times early on, Clinton missed a good headed chnace in the first half, Duff & Reid both had shots well saved, our set-pieces were decent for once, Robbie misplaced a header, O'Shea's missed by a foot... I saw no evidence of fear or undue caution (as The Guardian hack suggested). I'd say it was a responsible approach to the game and it could easily have yielded more but didn't.
I think mathematically 5 wins is needed to guarantee first place. If the Swiss and us have both won our previous 4 games, if we draw in dublin we'll be tied first on GD. You'd have to think 4 wins and a draw would do it though. Especially now that Switzerland's GD is coming back in line with ours too.Quote:
Originally Posted by pronane
I think 3 wins and 2 draws is enough to mathematically guarantee second and might just sneak first on GD.
I appreciate your faith. It could be all wrong!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy
Have to agree....The understandable knee jerk reaction from Sat should be coming to an end by now...We need to get behind the Team..Bring on June 4th