Best Ireland Performance Ever?

[Disgrace]

Nobody has mentioned the 1-1 draw with england at wembly in the european championships when we really should should have beaten them easily. Sadly a familiar story!!

And Houghton had another chance to make him to most celebrated goalscorer in Irish history... reminiscent of some of the misses on Wednesday. Still, the 15 minutes of sustained pressure that led to Quinn's goal is like nothing I'd seen before, or since.. Even when the goal came, it was like a relief.

[Emmet7]

The fact is, had Henry kept his hand to himself, the ball would have went wide and there'd be no blaming McShane or anyone like that.

There's been a lot of pathetic defences of Henry, David Ginola saying on CNN that Henry wasn't to blame it was the ref's false.

I just watched a replay there, and at no stage did I see Henry hold his hands up after the goal and rush to the referee to claim it was handball.

He rushed to congratulate the goalscorer instead and the ref had declared a goal at that stage.

I do think the ref has a lot to answer for. The smell of this match being rigged is very strong and it continues to stink. The decks were loaded against Ireland before the match with the seeding, and the fact Ireland were at home first made it more difficult with France having home advantage which is almost worth a goal given the pressure refs are under, for the extra time.

I know the ref had a good game, but maybe he was hoping France would actually score a legitimate goal and not a dodgy one such as from a wrong penalty decision which would have jepordised his world cup refereeing hopes and summer holiday in South Africa.

When it became increasingly clear that France were not going to score, maybe he he said right, the next time France look like scoring I'm not going to stand in their way by blowing up for a free. In this regard I believe the ref and the linesman knew full well what Henry did and the linesman saw it perfectly, but they weren't going to give the free.

I have a feeling Trap is right to be suspicious about the referee team. The whole thing stinks.

And what stinks the most is that everyone claims the referee could see nothing yet he was able to say adamently to the Irish players that the ball hit Henry on the hip.

So he didn't see what Henry did, yet he was able to tell the Irish players where the ball struck Henry. Is anyone else suspicious?

[Greenbod]

Is anyone else suspicious?

No. it's only you.

[Emmet7]

No. it's only you.

In the same week that 200 matches are being investigated for rigging, its not something you can overlook easily.

My points are still valid. The ref didn't see anything yet could tell the Irish players with confidence it hit Henry on the hip which everyone in the stadium and watching on TV could see wasn't true. The linesman had a perfect unimpaired view of the incident and would clearly have seen the ball hit him on the hip. It was a long way away from his hip.

[Stuttgart88]

Maybe his linesman - who he consulted - told him that. Ref had no chance of seeing it, as proven on Sky Sports. Linesman had a good view.

I think if the ref was under pressure to give a decision he could easily have given the penalty.

Sure the whole system stinks but I think we were just rank unlucky in this instance.

[bennocelt]

If the ref was dodgy then he def would have given that peno
He was let down by his linesman and fifa, and mostly the French players themselves

[brine3]

Italy 1994 Holland 2001 and Spain 2002 were better displays.

As Duff said on Monday, Ireland would have to be at the top of their game and France have an off-day in Paris. Both happened.

France were a shambles in normal time in Paris. Not taking anything from our performance but everything in context.

Holland shat all over us in 2001, I don't know how they didn't manage to score. Although we did score with a brilliant passing move when we were down to 10 men... one of the greatest moments in Irish football.

We had France in our pockets on Wednesday. We created chances and dominated them. We didn't let them create anything. Best performance I've seen since 1994 anyway.

Nobody has mentioned our 2-0 drubbing of World Cup semi-finalists Croatia in 1998. One that often is forgotten...

[Donegalcelt]

Yeah Holland 01 and England 88 were both backs to the wall jobs. I think England 91 and Russia 88 are games were we dominated against top opposition and also Spain 92 in Seville was a great performance too.

Agree totally. We played well in Giants too v Italy. McGrath was that good, I think they only got one shot on target, from Signori, which Packie saved easily enough. Sheridan hit bar, also.

Holland 01 and England 88 were real nerve-wracking and we we lucky on occasions.

Spain 92 was as good a game as Keane ever played - wasn't Maradona at Sevilla that time and was on about how impressed he was? Quinn missed a sitter and Aldo had a goal disallowed. They also had a last man red-carded.

Russia 88 was excellent, and really hard to believe that we only drew, while England 91 at Wembley was outstanding. They were penned in for long spells that night, only scored a poxy defelction by Dixon off Stan, and Ray Houghton missed a great chance, one-on-one, late in the game to win it.

Spain 02 was also very good, although MrFritz and his linos were very obliging, and we were better than Germany in the same competition.

In recent history, we've proved we really can lift it against the top sides, or at least get a decent result - Portugal twice (1-1, 1-1), holland twice (1-0, 2-2), Germany and Spain (1-1 and 1-1), France away twice (0-0 and 1-0, well 1-1), Italy twice (2-2 and 1-1). It's them pesky Isrealis, Swiss and teams like that who cause the problems!

[Donegalcelt]

In the same week that 200 matches are being investigated for rigging, its not something you can overlook easily.

My points are still valid. The ref didn't see anything yet could tell the Irish players with confidence it hit Henry on the hip which everyone in the stadium and watching on TV could see wasn't true. The linesman had a perfect unimpaired view of the incident and would clearly have seen the ball hit him on the hip. It was a long way away from his hip.

Sunday Indo reckons lino waved appeal appeals cos he was certain that Gallas (not Henry) didn't handle. Doh! How he missed the first one God knows.

They also reckon that the fourth official knew it was handball, but the Irish Mail said that he only gave the news to our Swedish friend at half-time in extra-time. In hindsight, Duffer should've taken the most almighty tumble in their area in the second period of extra-time!

[as_i_say]

Considering how much weaker this team was compared to the personnel involved in USA 94/euro 88 and even the dutch in 2000 and 2001, surely last week was the greatest ever performance.

[paul_oshea]

i almost think that because of the players reaction he didnt step back and became more insistent on it being a legitimate goal. Had we not reacted the way we did, I could see him not giving it. I think it comes down to how they are seen as ceding power, and they would never want to be seen to be doing that.