James Corden - Honorary Irishman

[bennocelt]

I said that in the boozer as soon as he got the job, hardly great insight.

Might prove us wrong though after today's result! Still think they'll get done at the back by anyone decent in the knock outs.....

yeah but unfortunately you dont work for the BBC

[Dunny]

yeah but unfortunately you dont work for the BBC

Pity, he'd probably do better than that Northern bloke with the specs!

[bennocelt]

Pity, he'd probably do better than that Northern bloke with the specs!

Yeah, nice guy and all but another example of BBC using personality over indepth analysis

[Straightstory]

Funny, I don't seem to remember the part about French or Spanish occupation of Ireland in my history textbooks.

Actually, if you knew your history, you'd know that the 'occupation' of Ireland (perjorative term) was originally a Norman 'invasion'. (And that word isn't very accurate either, as the Norman lords were invited in by Irish chieftains). Which actually leads us back to our rivalry with the French...

[paul_oshea]

perhaps france aren't that good after all? Perhaps we shoudl really have beaten them easily and not made such a big deal out of the fact we went 1-0 up in paris......

[Den Perry]

An English media-person making insults about the French? Gadzooks, stop the presses! Seriously, it's small crumbs of comfort we're reduced to if we're latching onto the "jokes" of the too-easily xenophobic English.

I'd rather move on at this stage & use our wronging as a catalyst for the next campaign, not wallow in the past. Oh wait, we're Irish, that's all we do.

For God's sake, have a sense of humour

[Serb]

Damn it. I didn't realise that the video I posted on the first page is actually an edited version of what took place. It makes Corden look like the victim alright, but in the full video Corden was implying that Patrick Stewart was a pedofile. Stewart's comeback was painful, but it wasn't just a tirade of random fat jokes.

[SkStu]

perhaps france aren't that good after all? Perhaps we shoudl really have beaten them easily and not made such a big deal out of the fact we went 1-0 up in paris......

this certainly crossed my mind yesterday too, Paul.

[OwlsFan]

I believe Lineker said at the end of the Mexico vs France game "that they'll be dancing in the streets of Mexico City...and Dublin as well".

Well, not quite but thanks for the thought.

[bennocelt]

this certainly crossed my mind yesterday too, Paul.

This crossed my mind too, about 7 months ago infact

[Stuttgart88]

perhaps france aren't that good after all? Perhaps we shoudl really have beaten them easily and not made such a big deal out of the fact we went 1-0 up in paris......

I was thinking about that, but:

- We had to play France in Paris, not South Africa, and
- If the problem really is / was Domenech and the associated disharmony & disunity, that's far more likely to play out after a few weeks of training & preparation, and then travel to Sth Africa, than after only a few days together and before what was effectively a cup final.

I thought too many here were doom-mongering before the play-off. In hindsight the whole picture is that over the 2 legs we created more chances than they did. They scored a deflection and a dodgy goal. The only other clear chance that I recall was a late Govou miss in Paris when we were chasing the game, and O'Shea's tackle. We lost 2 good players near the end in Paris and had the disadvantage that McShane came on. They might have been given 1 or 2 penalties and we missed 5 clear chances over the 2 games. In hindsight, we certainly could & should have beaten them, not easily like you say though. A bit more clinical or just lucky and we'd have been there.

[elroy]

In hindsight the whole picture is that over the 2 legs we created more chances than they did. They scored a deflection and a dodgy goal. The only other clear chance that I recall was a late Govou miss in Paris when we were chasing the game, and O'Shea's tackle. We lost 2 good players near the end in Paris and had the disadvantage that McShane came on. They might have been given 1 or 2 penalties and we missed 5 clear chances over the 2 games. In hindsight, we certainly could & should have beaten them, not easily like you say though. A bit more clinical or just lucky and we'd have been there.

Im not sure if we created more chances than them over the two legs. The first half in Dublin was even, but at the start of the second half they upped their game and pinned us in our half, culminating in their goal. Lucky enough as it was. But Evra argubaly shouldve had a pen in Dublin and Gignac missed an absolute sitter to put them two ahead and kill the tie. Imo, we lost the tie in the second half in dublin. Couldnt fault the performance in Paris, with the exception of the misses by Keane and Duff more so. The injuries we suffered that night showed that we did not have the strength in depth in the squad and their goal wouldnt have happened if JOSH was still on the pitch imo.

[Charlie Darwin]

To be fair even McShane is better than the replacement centre halves France brought on.

[yapster]

This is one of the worst French teams ever and Ireland should have beaten them 3-1 'including the handball goal by France'. Ireland failed to take the chances presented to them and THAT is the reason France are in the WC Finals. Ireland have only themselves to blame at the end of the day.

[tricky_colour]

The big lad from Gavin and Stacey.

P.S - really time to get over it now lads

Ah I didn't know that as I don't watch it although I have seen him before on things like
awards ceremonies and sports charity stuff and the like and wondered how he got into show
business, he seems quite a good entertainer, I remember my sister raving about Gavin and Tracy
but I never watched it because it sounded crap.

[Stuttgart88]

Im not sure if we created more chances than them over the two legs. The first half in Dublin was even, but at the start of the second half they upped their game and pinned us in our half, culminating in their goal. Lucky enough as it was. But Evra argubaly shouldve had a pen in Dublin and Gignac missed an absolute sitter to put them two ahead and kill the tie. Imo, we lost the tie in the second half in dublin. Couldnt fault the performance in Paris, with the exception of the misses by Keane and Duff more so. The injuries we suffered that night showed that we did not have the strength in depth in the squad and their goal wouldnt have happened if JOSH was still on the pitch imo.

I just remembered the Gignac chance alright, had forgotten it.

But:
Keane one-on-one in Dublin, Lloris saves it and lawrnence misses the rebound (off Evra)
Whelan one-on-one late on in Dublin
Doyles's header early in Paris
Duff one-on-one in Paris
Keane one-on-one in Paris
O'Shea unmarked from a corner in both Dublin & Paris - misses two volleyed chances, a chance he took in the CL semi-final in 2009.

That's a lot of chances, more than they had, despite their monopoly of possesion in 2nd half in Dublin

[Drumcondra 69er]

This is one of the worst French teams ever and Ireland should have beaten them 3-1 'including the handball goal by France'. Ireland failed to take the chances presented to them and THAT is the reason France are in the WC Finals. Ireland have only themselves to blame at the end of the day.

That's bull****, we were certainly wasteful and have to take some of the blame but when you get done by as scandalous a decision as we were to say we only had ourselves to blame is frankly nonsense.

[newrynyuk]

If we had scored a second goal, we would have been at the World Cup. End of. Even with that handball goal, we would have won the tie on away goals. But the fact is we didn't score a second, and even if that handball goal was chalked off, the tie would have ended 1-1 and gone to penalties at best.

[Stuttgart88]

Looking at the performances of both Italy and France I think the correct assessment of the Irish campaign is that we are becoming a better side but we were not clinical enough either at the front or at the back. Almost everything we conceded was simply careless and we left too many chances out there. Tighten up and sharpen up and we'll do well, otherwide it'll be another near miss at best.

[tetsujin1979]

if we'd lost on penalties, there's honour in that. You can even point to it and say "well, we weren't as good as them at taking penalties, so that's why we didn't qualify"
But instead we're saying "we went out because they cheated"