Post Match and looking ahead

[geysir]

France are 1/25 to qualify

That's a sobering thought.

[Murfinator]

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

[Gather round]

Those odds are slightly distorted maybe. William Hill over here suggests 1/10 and 11/2. Deduct the bookie's margin (the odds add to ca. 106%), they have it effectively 86:14 in France's favor, or 1/6 and 6/1.

Bonne chance.

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.

[galwayjames]

What sparked that bout of handbags at the end (I was listening on BBC 5 live, and later saw Trap quoted saying that one of the French players said something so rude he couldn't repeat it)?

Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

[noddy102]

just watched the post match scuffle and interviews from last night.

I just have to say what a total gentleman Thierry Henry is. While Lasanna Diarra was acting like a complete tool, Henry was very humble in his interview and very fair to Richard Dunne as he seemed to be apologising on behalf of his teammates. There's a lot of people on that French side that have their heads halfway up their ass (see: Anelka, Sagna, Lass, Abidal etc) but he isn't one of them.

I hate when people call Thierry Henry 'arrogant'. He is one of the great football professionals of our time. All the people booing him last night when he took the corners should be thankful they had the opportunity to watch such a fantastic footballer in person. I had no qualms about singing his song last night on numerous occasions.

[geysir]

Agreed about Henry, he is a class act, both on and off the pitch.

Don't know about his spats with his boss Domenech, I suppose that doesn't count.

[carloz]

Some french dude wouldn't shake hands with Richard Dunne and it just got a bit stupid from there on.

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

[noddy102]

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

He'll be turned into Lasagne!

[seanfhear]

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

Hopefully no one will do something daft and get sent off early.

If the games up for Ireland then in the last ten seconds some one can let him have it.

[mypost]

France are 1/25 to qualify

To put that into perspective, they were the same odds on the government winning the Lisbon ref. We know what happened then.

[Stuttgart88]

Bonne chance.

Thank you

[MariborKev]

To put that into perspective, they were the same odds on the government winning the Lisbon ref. We know what happened then.

They lost the first leg, won the second leg and it went through?

Happy days

[Den Perry]

I think that was an awesome post, Emmet. Its obvious you take care in making it. I think it is blog worthy.
It sums up my opinion almost 100%.

well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

[Kingdom]

Gutted. Dejected. Inconsolible. Proud.
Those were the feelings leaving the ground. Felt the team gave their all, but were beaten by a better collection of players. Atmosphere was very good, probably the best in Croker. Hard to pick a best or worst player on the night.

On the face of it France seemed to step it up in the 2nd half, and the goal was coming. Gourcuff had a fantastic game for France, and like Pirlo for Italy ran the show and drifted into spaces effortlessly which players aren't able to do.
Thought Lloris had a fantastic game for France. 4 times I counted where balls came into the area between the penalty spot and the line and he claimed each one.

The Irish lads again seemed jaded about the hour mark, not surprising given the hustling.

Thought McGeady could have been brought on quicker, I have to be honest. 15mins isn't fair.

A real tough assignment now on Weds. I'm not hopeful, but, and its a massive one, if we were to score first it would really put the cat among the pidgeons.

Allez les verts.

[Den Perry]

Man so gutted after that, just back from the game i would like to watch the highlights on tv again.

Firstly i know i am biased on this but emmet a lot of the stuff you are saying about doyle is bull. Yes Doyle was poor away to italy when at a time he was playing with the injury that later in the season required surgery to cure, italy at home he was only returning following said injury.

But you question his workrate in tonights game when once again he has ran himself into the ground for the team, plus constantly competing with 2 centre halves in the air for all our kick outs and long deliveries. he is not the tallest of strikers but has a fantastic leap and whins far more than the 1 in 5 headers you suggest plus any header he looses the defenders clearing header does not travel far clear because of his commitment to challenging the defense in the air.

You praise keane work rate tonight and tell people who were questioning this before hand to take note. Well i was happier with robbie tonight than a lot of games in the past but imo this is the effort he should give everytime he pulls on the green jersey.

Often for example if ireland are attacking up the right wing and robbie is the nearest striker to the player with the ball he will make no effort to make himself available and so doyle will have to make the hard yards and run down the channel to give our midfielder an option. He will not compete in the air for headers and has the uncanny ability to 9/10 make the run into the wrong position following doyles knock on.

Plus you question doyle's ability to hold up the ball and be pyhcisal when he gave a master class in making himself available for every throw and set piece taking in hard won balls and getting them under control making space and recycling clean possesion to kick start attacks. Until he was substitued and the bigger stronger and fresher Best came on and lost every 50/50 ball against a tiring backline, one which kick started the counter attack to the french goal.

anyway long rant over except for the one aspect of all irish players i was disappointed by not one irish player was prepared to make that one cynical tackle to disturb and upset Gorcuff and to a lesser extent Lasanna diarra, anelka, sagna or henry frances most influential players on the night, come in late take a yellow and let them no they are in a war and see how the react. yes some great tough clean tackle were executed tonight but sometimes one late bookable tackle upsets a team more.

Also as we did not get many corners or frees near the box but an abundance of throws i wished to see Delap's name on the program. i think the french would hate to face his aerial bombardment
Anyawy off to paris on monday all we need is a win the tie is still alive JUST.

I actually think Delap's throw in would be a serious weapon against them

[DotTV]

A few things that seem to have been missed. Doyle was crocked late in the first half and limped for 5 minutes thereafter. He was never the same after that and I expected him to be subbed earlier. I thought up to that he had done very well, winning most things in the air.

i was at the game but studied in on video this am. Whelan tracks Anelka for the build up to the goal and then loses him at the crucial moment.

Lawrence was excellent. A real find for someone not getting his game regularly.

Messrs Giles and Drunkphy wanted us to attack in numbers. Could you imagine what France would do to us in a quick counter-attack (e.g. like Itlay did in the last minute).Apart from the start of the 2nd half and a 10 minute spell leading up to the goal, we matched the French. I don't recall a save by Shay other than one or two right at him.

We are suited for away games. I go to Paris not without hope. I think we were always going to have to go to France and score there. Nothing has changed except we'll have to score more than them.

Good point. We looked most vulnerable after the goal when we threw a bit of caution to the wind. It's a high risk strategy. Can't see Trap changing much and if we can keep them out for most of the game we may sneak a 1-0 and bring it to extra time...but in reality it's hard to see the French not scoring considering they play with three strikers and an attacking midfielder.

[Den Perry]

Think there were comments exchanged too. Diarra is meant to have said something very uncomplimentary about the Irish to Andrews. I hope Diarra is looking forward to the first 5 minutes in paris, i think we know what might happen

If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.I'd love to know what he said.I suppose insulting Irish people can't be described as "racist" because Irishness isn't exactly a race, but it would be very intersting to see if UEFA / FIFA would punish him if anybody made a complaint.

[Emmet7]

well anyone who states Keith Andrews was a candidate for man of match is talking rubbish. once again he and whelan were completely overun.

I am going to put you on ignore now because it's blatent you know nothing about football.

Andews was our best player in the first half, he did his job, the job he was asked to do, supurbly. He closed down, he put in two supurb crunching tackles in a row on one occassion, do you remember that. He was faultless in the first half. He put his body on the line time after time such as when he was elbowed in the face.

In the second half he tired but was still ok. Anyone who says Andrews was poor in the first half is an idiot and not worth listening to and i don't care who they claim to be. There are a lot of idiots with no knowledge of the game in Ireland masquarading as experts.

Doyle is not up to the task of delivering us a goal. I can explain the technical reasons but I doubt a person of your limited intellect would understand, but for the benefit of others, Doyle receives the ball 90% of the time with his back to goal. That makes the job of scoring much more difficult. The best way to score as a forward is facing goal and running onto a ball, usually over the top or else run onto a knockdown as Keane did in Bari and when he was facing goal. Letting Doyle have the ball to his feet and facing away from goal is pointless. What will he do? Lay it off to some other player of limited ability? Who then lashes a high ball into the box with only Keane to compete against two tall centre backs.

People say Doyle is good at holding the ball up and waiting for suppport. Again that's no use to us. When he holds it up like that, he also holds it up for the French defence to get back into position. That's one of the reasons Doyle is so easy to counter. He has lost a few yards of pace with injury and can't run onto a through ball, hold off players with his strength and score. It won't get any better in the next 3 days.

But of course people like Den Perry have no interest in the technical side of soccer. They are more interested in listening to journos and parroting their obsession with Andy Reid.

Andy Reid would be useless without quick strong forwards to run onto his passes. He has strong forwards to run onto his passes at Sunderland and who are lethal finishers. He has Kenwan Jones to aim his crosses at. We don't have that at Ireland. We don't have any clinical finishers. Our system is not set up to allow our forwards score in big games. They have only scored one between them in our 7 biggest games, and even that was scored when Doyle wasn't on the field.

[kingdom hoop]

If Diarra did insult the Irish, then if we are totally out of the tie, somebody should go and do him...and I mean really do him.Ensure he doesn't go to any world cup.

Jesus, the stress is really getting to people on this thread - some bizarre posts.

Den, I love the spirit.
But if you feel that strongly about it, maybe run on to the pitch in Paris and do it yourself. Don't wear green though. I'd rather see my "warriors" win the important fight.

[Blue Man]

Apparantley Diarra was heard saying the tie was over and that Andrews was an Irish c**t or something to that effect. I think the scuffle at the end was exactly what we need going into Wednesday because surely this will rile up the likes of Dunne and Andrews and its going to be a hell of a first ten mins in Paris!!

Early goal and its game on again. Score first and we'll win it! Believe!! Cmon Ireland