Hope missing all these chances won't come back to bite them, they should be 3 or 4 ahead at this stage.
In fairness to Crawford's team they play a very attractive brand of football.
If they get another quick one they look capable of running up a big win here.
Hope missing all these chances won't come back to bite them, they should be 3 or 4 ahead at this stage.
In fairness to Crawford's team they play a very attractive brand of football.
FFS....
1-1 at the break. huge half ahead for the boys.
norway trail at home to italy, that one kicked off a half hour after our game.
I’d bring on Okoflex for O’Neill and Adeeko (maybe Phillips) for Healy relatively early into the second half
Would like to see O’Neill replaced alright. Getting into good positions but hasn’t been able to finish them off. With the attacking talent on the bench it seems the obvious one to change.
Ireland far too slow and passive in possession, multiple times there's been three or four targets in the box and we keep recycling it instead, waiting for a perfect through ball that probably isn't going to come. We can afford to send it in earlier, they're just going to kick it straight back to us anyway.
Disaster from Keeley ,really bad goalkeeping….
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Latvia not afraid to stick it in the box and there you go.
Have to abandon the ****e Crawford ball nonsense now and get on with it.
Oh no .. no 20 easily beats McNulty for the cross as well
And it’s level again !
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Well done Roughan. Super finish
No need to majorly change the approach. Creating loads of chances. Just need to be clinical. The goals conceded were out of nothing really. Emakhu is a much better finisher than O’Neill and I think they’ll get a winner.
Nah, it was wrong from the off, far too passive. Trying to technically pass our way through teams when we just don't have the technical players to do it consistently. Reminiscent of the worst of the Kenny era at senior level against weaker opposition.Originally Posted by passinginterest
Crawford on course to blow his third successive Euros qualification chance with probably the three best Under 21 teams we've ever had. He's had a few lucky escapes this campaign, now he's been caught. The last two subs were a waste of time, they won't be playing professional football at a decent level by the time they're 25.
Far too quick to shoot on sight instead of trying to fashion a proper chance,disappointing result….
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
That's was just the last 20 when panic stations set in. Before that it was like they were trying to score the perfect goal. No worthwhile Plan B when it turned out Plan A was dealt with through a basic low block. And terrible substitutions to make things even worse.
Can actually still see us getting past Norway and into a playoff. But fully expect us to blow the playoff. It's a shame because we've had some decent under 21 teams in the last five or six years, but they've been let down by management. The next group doesn't look as strong sadly.
Italy U21s beat Norway 3-0.
Good result for us after dropping two points.
https://www.uefa.com/under21/match/2037274/
this was a very frustrating watch. if we don't beat Norway we'll probably need a non loss away to Italy when it was in our hands.
terrible mistake by keeley for Latvia's second
Threw that away. Likely the difference between qualifying and not.
I’d question starting Ollie O’Neill. Missed too many chances in the first half. Vata hitting the post probably the sliding doors moment.
All of O’Neill, Healy and Curtis could do better for the first goal. Keeley threw in the second.
Not sure how Matt Healy got MOTM - thought Hodge was significantly better of the two midfielders. Thought we needed a change in midfield into the second half - either Adeeko or Phillips.
Still had chances late on. Moran, Garcia-McNulty, Emakhu and Kenny all could or should have scored. I thought we could also have had a few penalties, Curtis and Emakhu.
Emakhu's was a clear penalty, but he didn't make a big enough deal of it and there wasn't a proper crowd to influence the ref.
The decisions that led to the match being played when and where it was played a big part in the outcome as well I think. There was no reason why this game couldn't have been played at Turner's Cross. Crawford's thinking was that traveling to Cork would be a hassle (presumably no more so than for Latvia though). So he decided he wanted it in Dublin.
He then compounded that mistake by asking for the latest possible kickoff time, meaning a guaranteed small crowd because it was near impossible to go to both games on the same night. He completely negated our home advantage for the fixture in the process. Just an act of pure self-sabotage from a poor manager.
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