The ref is very good with his decisions (so far)
The ref is very good with his decisions (so far)
It has the feel of an FA Cup tie now.
O'Shea has been excellect.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
Theres an equaliser in this game!
If it wasn't so tense, I'd be enjoying it. It's got a great frenetic pace to it, and the ref is helping itOriginally Posted by backstothewall
We look tired. The euphoria of a goal with the last kick of a game is a haunting thought. ET we could be completely out on our feet. Do you disrupt things and make changes with 10 or 12 mins to go. Ogbene doesnt look like he could hold on to the ball at all 2nd half. Not getting near 2nd ball with kick outs just coming back at us. It will be a massive back to the wall effort, one that will stand to us if we pull it off, 45 mins of it really.
and now we start playing it about as we should really have been when ahead. Maybe the Czechs have burnt themselves out a bit getting level.
It was a mistake to bring in Browne instead of Knight. We were giving the ball away for too much in the second half, weren’t winning 50/50s through the pitch, especially in midfield and not wanting to get on the ball. Browne added very little
Harvey Vale has an opportunity to go down in the annals of Irish sport here.
I'm going to puke
2 shÃte penalty efforts, the so called lottery.
How to hell was Browne given the 5th penalty after missing one in Slovakia at the last play off..
Ridiculous
We were so unlucky with the ball off the post, and an absolutely brilliant save from Parrot..
Did anyone expect Browne to score his? I certainly didn't. As soon as I saw it was him my heart sank. I'm sure he was brave enough to put his hand up and everything, but he should never have been on the last penalty.
Absolutely knew he’d miss it, and so did he!
No, not a bit of it. As soon as I saw Browne place it I knew he wouldn't score
People may see this as a kneejerk reaction but tonight was regression again after stepping up last 2 games. To be 2 up away from and dominating to getting hammered for 45mins, hanging on, and then ultimately lose shows that there is still a brittle weakness in the sporting psyche of this football team. Thats not to say that we haven improved from the previous era at all. There's too often a lack of simple footballing intelligence, Manning giving away that penalty a prime example. A lot of silly frees imo that put us under unnecessary pressure 2nd half also. There is physical and there is not putting your hands on a players back allowing them a soft free. I thought the ref was pretty good in letting the physical game play but the card count early on suggests that he felt Ireland needed to be 'contained' more. This Czech side are not good, i'd argue that we are a good bit better as a unit but let them off the hook. How we were able to get hold of the ball at 2-2 but were pretty aimlessly hitting it long and looking to hang on by jus defending deep haning on to a minimum lead. Theres a balance to this, we havent ever been a side that tends to concentrate and hold out for 90mins with 20% possession like Iceland could back 2016 or so. We always cough up goals eventually when we just sit in. The manager even mentioning penalties prematch worried me . I'll change my tune if the Danes dont qualify now.
So next campaign, expectations will be higher. We cant be running scared of 3rd and 4th seeds that play a little. We may be hosts but it isnt guaranteed yet is it?
Last edited by Nesta99; 26/03/2026 at 9:57 PM.
Was it just me or should the czech players challenge on szmodics have been looked at more closely?
25 at the last world cup and now pushing 50
I would have never thought....
Ryan manning is a complete clown and it should never be forgotten that his complete meltdown screwed us over,I’m convinced weed have won comfortably but for that,Idiotic
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Luck will only take you so far. A lot of confident teams will go 2 nil up and close the game out without fanfare, Ireland are not that kind of team.
I expect Denmark will dispatch chechia without much fuss.
I think where it goes wrong is that we just don't know what to do when we are two nil up. We're two nil up and trying to hit speculative passes into the channels, like we're chasing the game. We should just be looking for the easy pass. We have a ball playing goalkeeper. Use him. Pass the ball back to him. Run the clock down. Game management. Instead they are running around like blue arse flies.
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