Republic of Ireland V Bulgaria - Saturday, 28th March 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

**ken foree** · 27/03/2009, 1:03 PM

score draw (set-piece) and a 1-0 loss to the italians. sorry!

**lionelhutz** · 27/03/2009, 1:34 PM

Is Stylian Petrov injured? I saw someone mention it earlier in the thread but not sure whether its true. With Martin Petrov and Berbatov injured, who are the other players who would be considered their most influential?

I'm heading to Dublin from Limerick tomorrow full of optimism that we'll get the victory. Duffs injury is a huge blow admittedly - his form with Ireland has been consistenly excellent - but I still feel very confident that Keane, Doyle and McGeady (hopefully he'll be ok) will produce the goals needed and that our defence will hold firm with Dunne and O'Shea being rock solid again.

I believe Reid should be there to replace Duff - he'd offer us so much more creativity than Hunt - but we're still good enough to win. My predictions are;

Ireland 2 -0 Bulgaria

Italy 0 - 0 Ireland

**tetsujin1979** · 27/03/2009, 1:42 PM

Originally Posted by lionelhutz

Is Stylian Petrov injured? I saw someone mention it earlier in the thread but not sure whether its true.

Latest on Petrov:
from http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/270320...-cup-spot.html

although Aston Villa's Stiliyan Petrov should be fit despite limping out of training yesterday, defender Jivko Milanov remains a doubt with a knee problem

from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1041945.html

While Stiliyan Petrov and Zhivko Milanov are doubts.

from http://www.herald.ie/sport/soccer/st...i-1688922.html

Captain Stiliyan Petrov was an injury concern but the former Celtic man is expected to be fit for the game

If I had to guess, I'd say he will play

**mypost** · 27/03/2009, 2:06 PM

Hoping for a 2-0 win, if we will win though, it'll probably be by one goal only.

**Noelys Guitar** · 27/03/2009, 2:34 PM

In a post hangover, bizarre kind of way I feel more confident today that we will beat the Bulgars than I felt Wednesday. Expectations are back were they should be after the Duff injury news. I was reading way too much about the next 2/3 games ****e in the papers. How crap the Bulgars are, injuries etc etc. We are not good runaway favourites. We are back to horrible 1-0 terrority. Great. Roll on the match.

**bwagner** · 27/03/2009, 2:51 PM

Mine would be:

Given

Foley Dunne O Shea Deleney

Mc Geady Whelan Andrews Kilbane

Keane Doyle

**tetsujin1979** · 27/03/2009, 3:03 PM

same as the line up against Georgia, with Hunt in for Duff

**TerryPhelan** · 27/03/2009, 3:51 PM

McShane looks to have been given the nod for tomorrow:

"The question of the right-back berth was also addressed by Trap. Steve Finnan’s absence from the squad because of injury meant Stephen Kelly, Kevin Foley and Paul McShane were vying for the spot and the boss has opted for the latter.

He said: “Yesterday I saw all the right-back defenders in training. I think McShane has the best chance because he can play right-back and also in the centre. I can also change John O’Shea to right-back. McShane will play.”"

Also, Keogh and Long are mentioned as contingency plans should McGeady fail a fitness test. Hadn't thought about Long as an option there.

My brief dalliance with optimism has taken an absolute nose-dive since reading about Duff's injury. Changes the complexion of our chances in these two games entirely. Terry is back in Pessimismville.

Question: who takes our set-pieces now? Whelan and Hunt? The former has a marginally better delivery, but both are pretty erratic unfortunately. Hunt's delivery has been terrible in the qualifiers so far. Foresee a lot of wasted frees and corners - a frustrating evening.

**Scram** · 27/03/2009, 4:11 PM

Originally Posted by TerryPhelan

McShane looks to have been given the nod for tomorrow:

"The question of the right-back berth was also addressed by Trap. Steve Finnan�s absence from the squad because of injury meant Stephen Kelly, Kevin Foley and Paul McShane were vying for the spot and the boss has opted for the latter.

He said: �Yesterday I saw all the right-back defenders in training. I think McShane has the best chance because he can play right-back and also in the centre. I can also change John O�Shea to right-back. McShane will play.�"

Also, Keogh and Long are mentioned as contingency plans should McGeady fail a fitness test. Hadn't thought about Long as an option there.

My brief dalliance with optimism has taken an absolute nose-dive since reading about Duff's injury. Changes the complexion of our chances in these two games entirely. Terry is back in Pessimismville.

Question: who takes our set-pieces now? Whelan and Hunt? The former has a marginally better delivery, but both are pretty erratic unfortunately. Hunt's delivery has been terrible in the qualifiers so far. Foresee a lot of wasted frees and corners - a frustrating evening.

I'd be happier if he plays O'Shea at right and McShane Centre.

Still have a 0-0 feeling about this. Though on the positive front, Saturdays have been good to Irealnd sport this year.

**irishfan86** · 27/03/2009, 5:07 PM

Very worried about the prospect of breaking up the O'Shea-Dunne axis, and bringing McShane into the middle.

He simply hasn't played enough games lately, and his confidence is obviously low.

This has Andy O'Brien vs Cyprus written all over it.

**richieos** · 27/03/2009, 5:41 PM

thats never in a million years going to happen with trap. his philosophy is to make as few changes as possible, mcshane in for finnan is one change, mcshane in for o'shea and o'shea to right back is 2 changes which unsettles the balance of the team and trap knows this, theres no need to worry about o'shea being moved in my opinion.

**irishfan86** · 27/03/2009, 6:24 PM

Originally Posted by richieos

thats never in a million years going to happen with trap. his philosophy is to make as few changes as possible, mcshane in for finnan is one change, mcshane in for o'shea and o'shea to right back is 2 changes which unsettles the balance of the team and trap knows this, theres no need to worry about o'shea being moved in my opinion.

If he hadn't said anything, I'd agree with you, but he's mentioned it in an interview today or yesterday, and I remember him mentioning it around the time of the Georgia game as a possibility.

I've had nightmares about this.

**richieos** · 27/03/2009, 6:27 PM

if anything that should assure you, he mentioned it before and didnt do it, and had success, so why would he do it now

**irishfan86** · 27/03/2009, 6:31 PM

Originally Posted by richieos

if anything that should assure you, he mentioned it before and didnt do it, and had success, so why would he do it now

The fact that he's still talking about doing it, and the fact that O'Shea is playing regularly at right back for United should give us all reason to worry.

**The Fly** · 27/03/2009, 6:43 PM

Aiden MacGeady has come through a full training session unscathed and therefore passed his fitness test.
He is now certain to take his place in the starting eleven tomorrow - PHEW!!!

**the doc** · 28/03/2009, 8:59 AM

I'm going for a 2-1 win, time to put all our moaning aside for 90 mins and back the team.

**corkboy360** · 28/03/2009, 9:10 AM

Are rovers clashing with the game ?

**Razors left peg** · 28/03/2009, 9:50 AM

With Duffer out Im struggling to come up with a prediction for tonights game.If McGeady continues his form from the last game and Robbie plays well I expect us to win, no clue of a score though.
The Italian game game depends on tonights performance, an excellent performance tonight and they will go to Italy with the confidence to take them on