Italy V Republic of Ireland - Wednesday, 1st April 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

[Jicked]

Oh sweet jesus, they're still talking about our excellent squad of players needing to be liberated, "managers would die for the kind of players we have". Also extremely controversial that he didn't play the injured Finnan. I think Eamo's been on the drink again.

We'll go back to squeezing the life out of the game when we go away to Bulgaria...the reason being that Bulgaria will want to be an attacking threat. If we don't double up at the back we'll expose the likes of McShane, O'Shea, Kilbane, Keogh and even in the second half on the break you can see how nervy we are with good teams running at us.

[danonion]

I bought a subscription to RAI (italian langauge channel in new york) for the match because 20$ is too much for watching it at the pub and the internet streams are rubbish. My voice is totally gone after roaring at the telly. Stephen Hunt was briliant!! Grosso proabbly should have been sent because he couldn't handle hunt on the right.

Caleb Folan impressed me. I'd let him keep the number 9 shirt for the match away to Bulgaria.

McShane was willing and his effort impressed me greatly.

Imagine what we could do if we had Stephen Reid and dare i say Mr Ireland at our disposal as well.

Win in Sofia and we're well and truly sorted

[Jicked]

Will be interesting to see the selection next time out, Doyle's been great for us in this campaign, no-one could doubt that. But maybe going with Folan is just more effective?

And look who scored against a big team

[KR's Post]

HUGE WIN, CAN I JUST POINT OUT THAT IT WAS fINNAN WHO LAUNCHED THE BALL AT THE WORLD CUP FOR ROBBIES GOAL AT THE WORLD CUP....

Nothing more than we deserved and maybe should have won it. I reckon we'll take them in Dublin, although they'll have alot of players back. By the way, it's very depressing watching on RTE. Moan this, Reid that, Need to play like this, like that. They only had ten men bla bla bla. A great result Dunphy, just take it for once, and giles is worse! Jesus.
P.s. Has anybody andy paracetmol for a sore throat!!??

[SkStu]

1: Those who booed the team off on Saturday and called for Trap's head the following morning must feel like a bunch of eejits.

i certainly dont feel like an eejit. I stand by my criticisms of Saturdays performance and i just cant believe we didnt kick on after the first goal. Tonight showed what we can do if we are allowed.

2: Keane does score against the big teams. You know who you are.

never any doubt. Love Keane.

3: Hunt can play for 90 minutes. Well done little man.

Hunt still has plenty of work to do in my opinion. But kept the defence guessing tonight and i liked that.

4: Long balls do work if Folan is on the receiving end and not Keano.

I stated after the Bulgarian game - why have Folan on the bench if you wont use him? Tonight showed that Folan is an effective international striker for the type of game we play. I would like Folan to start.

5: McShane is not a full back

McShane is not really a footballer.

6: Keogh is not a winger.

agreed. That was a forced change to be fair to Trap - McGeady will occupy that berth, barring injury.

[Jicked]

"i certainly dont feel like an eejit. I stand by my criticisms of Saturdays performance and i just cant believe we didnt kick on after the first goal. Tonight showed what we can do if we are allowed."

But do you not see how nervy we look when decent teams come at us? In that second half with nearly nothing to do the back four still almost gifted them a good chance when Dunne missed a header and McShane was away with the fairies. By doubling up, getting numbers behind the ball and playing on the counter we'll get to South Africa.

[irishultra]

boards.ie have some of the stupidest people imaginable. some of the comments

i love how when bulgaria pass it without going anywhere it shows 'superior technical ability' but when we do it any team can do it.

[OwenGoal]

Anybody heard any Italian reaction? I work with a bunch Italians so I want to be prepared for their reaction.

[SkStu]

But do you not see how nervy we look when decent teams come at us? In that second half with nearly nothing to do the back four still almost gifted them a good chance when Dunne missed a header and McShane was away with the fairies. By doubling up, getting numbers behind the ball and playing on the counter we'll get to South Africa.

there is a compromise to our style and tactics that can be reached. Tonight proved that.

[Jicked]

Have we ever played a double header, against any two teams let alone the two top seeds, where Shay Given has had one decent save to make in 180 minutes?

I can only think of the one against Bulgaria, none tonight?

[Stuttgart88]

Good retort Stu.

Thought Dunphy was petty in his summary tonight. Trap responded to the game's progression well though I thought maybe Long's energy might have been wiser than N. Hunt. Doyle hadn't had a touch in the second half.

Another legendary Irish draw I supposde but in context I'm very happy.

You can say all you like about Italy's absebtees but imagine an Ireland squad with both Reids, both O'Briens, Finnan, Duff, McGeady and Ireland available with that attacking mindset...

I think that Robbie may have found himself a new role. A few of us felt he should play deeper and I hope this gives Trap thought that there's more to our game than two tricky wide men.

[strangeirish]

[Scooby Doo]

lads, incredible. Ranks among some of the greatest games iv'e witnessed from ireland. Luved it Stephen Ireland who

[centre mid]

I can only think of the one against Bulgaria, none tonight?

No chance with either goal alright, probably shoudnt overstate the fact than Italy played in 10 for 87 mins though, but I take the point.

[Fergie's Son]

All in all a good result.

We were lucky with a sending off that wasn't. They played well and should have won the game but for some tactical errors by Lippi. Chief amongst those errors was removing Pirlo whom I thought dictated a lot of the pace of the game as the source of their counter attacks.

That said, we just kept plugging away at them and never dropped the heads. We deserve a lot of credit for that and I think we can run with this result. Not sure about the Gibson/Andrews switch.

Hunt played very well and justified his place. Folan was fairl annonymous but came up good when it counted. Keane might have won it, he had more time then he thought he did.

[geysir]

But do you not see how nervy we look when decent teams come at us? In that second half with nearly nothing to do the back four still almost gifted them a good chance when Dunne missed a header and McShane was away with the fairies. By doubling up, getting numbers behind the ball and playing on the counter we'll get to South Africa.

There are always going to be a few scares, no matter how good a back 4 are, when hit by a counter attack

[oscar]

Anybody heard any Italian reaction? I work with a bunch Italians so I want to be prepared for their reaction.

Momma miai heard that one oncewhats the name of the chipper you work in

[jebus]

Anybody heard any Italian reaction? I work with a bunch Italians so I want to be prepared for their reaction.

Chipper owner on the way back from the pub wasn't happy with Lippi for leaving out Cassano and thinks Santon should be brought into the first team. He also said that Ireland deserved it and it wasn't a red card (which is true). Might not speak for the rest of the country though

[Stuttgart88]

boards.ie have some of the stupidest people imaginable. some of the comments

i love how when bulgaria pass it without going anywhere it shows 'superior technical ability' but when we do it any team can do it.

It shows that when prepared/allowed to play "properly" we can do it. We had about 60% of our strongest XI available and we played bloody well in Italy's back yard. I think an Italian team determined to defend is a good proxy for a decent 2nd or 3rd ranking team in ordinary circumstances.

Good result, but a slight feekling that it might have been better given the way the game went.

Regardless of the result it looks like we can play ball against good teams if inclined to do so and have way more than just one tactic. Fair play to team & management.

[centre mid]

You can say all you like about Italy's absebtees but imagine an Ireland squad with both Reids, both O'Briens, Finnan, Duff, McGeady and Ireland available with that attacking mindset...

Excellent point, I've heard a lot this week about the "great" Irish squads of the last 20 years, if we could put injury and pettyness aside, we could have as good an eleven as any top 10 side in the world.