Tonight was special
That drive back to Belfast felt like it took about eight minutes...
Can't really believe that happened. Didn't really think results like that were possible for that team any more - little did I know they were just suckering the Germans (and everyone else) into complacency. Top tactics all round.
Shane Long, sorry I doubted you before but that was exactly what everyone wanted - big, juicy, major goals. Top marks.
Darren Randolph, fantastic - came on and played like he belonged. Seriously impressed, oozed composure.
James McCarthy - best performance in green, superb. Made a few errors in possession but honestly his tackling, tracking (often up against three runners at once) and general play was awesome. Think he answered where he performs best.
Wes Hoolahan - You're the one for me, Wessi.
Jonathan Walters - this man's a beast. A beast who can play football. Do they not make guys like this in the Bundesliga? Germany had no answer to Walters' sheer bloodminded brillance tonight. I can't get enough of this guy.
Everyone else, fantastic. A clean sheet off a defence boasting Randolph, Keogh, Christie and Ward is no mean feat, kudos to every single play - magnificent to a man.
My thoughts might coalesce into something more coherent tomorrow (if so I'll try again) - or they may not coalesce into anything ever again such has been the reality-warping evening we've all just experience. We're truly through the looking glass here people.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
Exactly as my above friend saidOriginally Posted by Bottle of Tonic
Unreal so proud!!!!!!!####
COYBIG
Just home there a while ago from the match and gargle afterwards. Town after the game was mad, most every car, taxi bus etc on the road beeping the horns to beat the band at the crowd leaving Landsdowne all the way into town, haven't seen the likes in years. Absolutely fantastic display tonight from us, trying not to repeat whats already been said but we were tactically brilliant, Christie looked like he was running in treacle first half but was great second. Everyone had a stormer and yes, Germany were in Harlem Globetrotter mode to a certain extent but do we care? Nope. 1-0 to us, thank you very much. Wesso? What can be said that hasn't already? What I wouldn't give for him to be 10 years younger. 4 generations of my family including myself in Landsdowne, going back 50/60 years of ST's/ heading to all the games year in and year out & us slightly younger heads being rared on it by the auld fellas, will never have a moment like that again when Long knocked that in or the final whistle as long as I live. The first time the new Landsdowne was as up for it as the old as well, the roar has been missed big time but came back tonight. Roll on Warsaw on Sunday, 7 of us heading over for the weekend for that, thank Christ I'm booked off work til next Wednesday!
Just a few questions and reflections after the game. Have we any players banned for the Poland game, and if not, might we have some selection headaches? Not something we normally have! Will this win help our ranking a lot or not? And lastly, if we qualify I wouldn't mind being in the same group as Germany. I can't believe I even think this!
Edit: Sunday is going to be one of the biggest days ever in Irish sport, already getting butterflies!
Last edited by gastric; 09/10/2015 at 3:23 AM.
Wow, wow, wow. What a result. Hat never tasted so good.
Indeed I believe the requirement was failure to qualify!!
Absolutely fantastic result and I've got to say that Martin O'Neill got the tactics absolutely right - set out the team to battle and contain in the first half and then went for it in the second half - even the choice of Daryl Murphy alone up front has paid off because instead of Shane Long trying to cause problems for a fresh German defence from the start (which is what many people were advocating), he came on fresh, to torment a tiring German backline. And I'm glad he has proved my prediction slightly wrong - in the Keane vs Long debate I had said that I expected Keane to get 4 or 5 goals in the campaign but merely hoped that Long got one important goal - well two of his three have been precious. A little note about the "route one" nature of our goal - this wasn't an aimless hoof and hope from Randolph - when you see it from behind, he doesn't hit it first-time. Rather he takes a touch - at this point Long is already on the move and Randolph hits a ball into the space behind the German defence that Long is charging towards and with the ideal weight to give him a shot at catching it.
So going back to O'Neill, he has come in for a lot of criticism throughout this campaign and was negatively compared to Strachan but the reality is that coming into tonight's game, we had been able to get the results to give ourselves a shout, particularly in Georgia and Germany, whereas Scotland did not. We also completely outplayed a very good Polish side at home in the second half and probably deserved to win that as well. And I believe somebody on this forum called the line-up tonight the worst Irish team he'd seen selected and yet they contained and frustrated the World Champions. Also when you look back at the first campaigns of Irish managers, this probably is as good as any of them as all of them had their negative points:
- Euro '88 under Jack - insipid 0-0 draws at home to Belgium and Scotland, away defeat to Bulgaria and near-catastrophe against Luxembourg
- World Cup '98 under Mick - limped into the playoffs well back of Romania and just ahead of Lithuania after defeat in Skopje and home draws against Iceland and Lithuania
- Euro 2004 under Kerr - OK had a difficult task coming in after 2 defeats but a draw away to Albania and defeat in Switzerland kept us out of a still reachable play-off position - in his first full campaign, failure to close out against Israel twice ruined us
- Euro 2008 under Stan - Well we were never really in the running there with the Cyprus game being the nadir
- World Cup 2010 under Trap - sure, no defeats and creditable draws against Italy but four draws against Montenegro and Bulgaria where we could have taken three wins and made it really interesting against Italy in Croker, particularly if we hadn't lost our heads after Sledge's goal
So I guess my point is that O'Neill has done quite well so far, overall and even if we end up in the playoffs and lose to a decent team, then I think he should be guaranteed another shot next autumn at least. That said, tonight proved that this Irish team has no reason to fear anybody and should go into next Monday's game believing that we are fully capable of getting the result required to get us through automatically and even if it doesn't turn out our way on the night that we can take on any of the teams in third place over two legs and win because looking at who's still in the mix, I only see teams that we can either match, at least (Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands) or that we should beat over two legs (Albania, Slovenia, Israel, Turkey, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina) as long as we play close to our potential.
And remember, we will have McClean, Whelan and hopefully Coleman back on Monday, and Clark and Wilson also to return, although given how well their replacements acquitted themselves, it might be difficult to get back into the starting line-up
Magic, historic night. A really special result. It was emotional. My eyes watered. We've been waiting since 2001 for a result like that. It feels great to have banished that pesky old "when's the last time we actually beat a proper team in a competitive game?" curse. (And Slovakia don't count.) The pub I was in (an Irish one, thankfully) erupted with joy when Long scored and the last 20 minutes were sheer nerves. I couldn't see it happening - we just don't experience these sorts of results any more, do we? - but the final whistle eventually arrived. Germany/Loew had been arrogant and complacent; that just added to the sweetness of it all. Great work and discipline by all involved. We really killed the game. All involved were heroes. Did Germany get any more than one or two shots on target all game? We stayed out in the pub celebrating with pints of Guinness and Irish music for hours after. I've just been trying to soak it all up since I got back; analysis, reaction and all that. Can't get enough of it. It's my birthday too, so, aye, thanks for that, Shane! Lovely, memorable present. Nice to be able to say we beat the world champs, but let's finish the job on Sunday.
The Germany defence might have been caught a bit off-guard with Long having just come on, in the sense they'd not seen him properly run until then and might have been unused to/unaware of his pace. It was slack to be caught so far up like that from a kick-out and they paid the price. Our "hundredth" long ball or not, Loew should not shirk responsibility for such poor organisation at the back.
Randolph was great (and now cap-tied; hands off, USA!). He should start against Poland. Much quicker getting the ball away and nippier off the ground. He was composed, safe and handled well. Felt way more secure with him on over Shay. Fair play to Shay - great servant and one of my all-time footballing heroes - but I reckon that has to be it for him.
Randolph factoid: he is actually the third keeper in Euro 2016 qualifying to have assisted a goal (after Rui Patricio and Pyatov).
I'm narked that Poland scored such an utterly flaky goal four minutes into stoppage time in Scotland. It took a slight sheen off the night considering we were sitting in second place and a point ahead of Poland at one stage. The sound was hard to follow in the pub, but our supporters appeared to be celebrating the Polish goal...? Was this the case, and, if so, why? A 2-1 Scotland victory would have meant a 0-0 or 1-1 draw would have sufficed to secure automatic qualification in Warsaw with Poland having to have a go at us rather than the other way around. Although, with nothing to lose in any case, we shouldn't complain too much and perhaps it will be more liberating in this position. We'll see... I'd probably feel more nervous if we were defending a position of superiority rather than vying for it, to be honest. Poland are certainly beatable if we play to our capabilities. We have nothing to fear. We just beat the world champions, don't you know?!
Is there anything to be lost from going all out for the victory on Sunday? Could losing rather than drawing cost us a place in the seeded pot of the play-off draw? I'm not sure of the permutations.
Sunday will be a great day for Irish sport generally. Really looking forward to it. Cannot wait.
Absolutely buzzing today. It will take days for this to sink in. I just hope we can follow it up on Sunday.
This is the result and the shot in the arm that Irish football needed. It makes all those nights at terrible friendlies or god damn awful performances worthwhile.
So proud of that performance. The fickle media and public in this country give this team plenty of stick, well take a load of that.
Im emotionally exhausted but couple of comments, some repetitive to the above. First half not great but second half I thought we grew in confidence and composure. Wes is truly by a million miles our most skillful player, so comfortable on the ball. Loved the moment in the second half when he was in a tight corner in the LB area, worked his way out of it then played a nice pass to keogh who then shinned it into the stand.
McCarthy for me was immense. Not so much on the ball but off the ball he was everywhere. Ward had a superb first half in particular. Randolph very impressive and composed. But one of the things that please me most is how we closed out the game in the last 10 minutes, yes they have one glaring chance but this is the World champions. The way we run down the four minutes of injury time in particular, it sounds simple but how many times have we failed to do it.
All I ask now is that we quickly put this to one side and regain focus, we have a massive opportunity (almost with nothing to lose now) on Sunday. We can get a win or the score draw thats needed.
Police car blasting out 'Put 'Em Under Pressure' in the middle of the night in Limerick.
Only the second time Germany/West Germany have ever lost two matches in the one qualifying campaign.
Other time was Euro 84, when they lost home and away to the North.
What worries me (with the unwelcome, realistic hat on) is that Germany would have beaten us comfortably if they had anyone who could shoot. Poland have Lewandowski, who has 21 goals so far this season in all competitions. Not sure how we can get a repeat result on Sunday tbh.
nothing flukey about the guts and determination last night. its not as if we had more than one or two saves to make and that they peppered our goal.
Ah no - there was a big element of luck in that win.
Possibly one of our greatest ever wins - have we ever beaten the reigning world champions in a competitive game before? - but far from our best ever performance.
26% possession in the first half! Ball retention was poor. Germany were amazingly casual in front of goal. The free header from the corner in the first half was an awful miss, as was the sidefooted effort that O'Shea deflected over the bar; the guy (Hummels?) was way too casual in placing the ball into the roof of the net, when if he'd drilled it low and hard, we'd have had no chance.
They were toying with us for the first half, and only their ineptness up front kept us in it.
Great finish from Long obviously.
Enjoy the win - it's one of the great things about football that mis-matches last night can still result in a shock result - but let's not pretend it was all down to guts and determination, and that Germany had no role in their own downfall.
And, it has to be said, Germany seem to have been like that all campaign - Scotland have equalised three times against them, Poland beat them when they should have been hammered (bit like last night), we drew out there.
Fascinating game in prospect in Poland, given the possible permutations and certainty of a playoff.
their bad finishing isn't our good luck. its simply bad finishing
does this statement not contradict your first? if they have been "like that all campaign" it hardly means that we were lucky so
How in the name of God does he pick the team?
I think we need to have two up front and not set up like a usual away game. We need to score goals, either by drawing with 2 or more scored or winning.
I'd go with the following:
Randolph
Coleman Keogh O'Shea Brady
Hendrick Whelan McCarthy
Hoolahan
Walters Long
Hard luck on Christie and we also have McClean to come in. Possibility he'll give Wilson the nod ahead of Keogh and there's the potential for Christie at left-back and Brady back in midfield. We could also leave Long as a super sub but it's so hard to resist starting him.
Absolutely is our good luck. Certainly wasn't anything to do with us.
No - although it probably requires clarification I guess. I was just highlighting that Germany seem to have been suffering a World Cup hangover this campaign (though they've still won the group)
Had they been the usual efficient Germany (and had we still got four points against them of course), we'd have all but qualified now because Poland would be on three points fewer. So in a way, the fact that Germany aren't as clinical as usual helped us hugely last night (and in Gelsenkirchen), but has hindered us elsewhere.
Swings and roundabouts really.
"To think now of the scandal of Trapattoni’s exiling of the Norwich sorcerer, Ireland reduced to creative wasteland, a tundra of daring, a wilderness of hope while the little man’s magic wand was wilfully decommissioned."
What a night!
I commented when I saw the line-up that the selection was gutless, well the performance was anything but. My main, and possibly only, gripe was that I thought it was a mistake starting Daryl Murphy, but it was a big one, and I don't think what unfolded proved otherwise. In hindsight though, in the heat of the moment I probably didn't give enough credit for the more risky and bold selections. Despite all the injury/suspension setbacks he kept the faith that Hoolahan wouldn't be a liability in such a game, using a player who hadn't played in weeks to release Brady to a more attacking role and even trusting Cyrus Christie to find his feet at the deep end, instead of more experienced campaigners that could have 'done a job'. His willingness to stick with Hendrick throughout this campaign has been the makings of him as well, and his faith has been justified ten fold.
The game itself...
While it was clear from the get-go that we had a plan and we were 'up for it', sport has a funny way of, on occasion, rewarding detailed preparation, precise application and endless amounts of bravery, even against all the odds. We had all those things in abundance but we still weighed heavily on the generous sporting Gods to give us a dig out on more than one occasion. Germany are getting a hard time for their seemingly complacent, blasé attitude. While there might be some truth in this, they still performed well enough on the night to have won that game nine times out of ten. I don't know what game those who sat in relative comfort were watching.
Off the top of my head, Boateng had a very straight forward, completely free header in the opening minutes, Schurrle had a clear opening and Muller had an absolute sitter by his standards. These were probably easier chances than Shane Long's, definitely two out of the three were. Even at the very end I think it was Hummels who flicked a header straight into Randolphs waiting arms, either side of him and it in. I thought Toni Kroos was majestic as well. We were arguably cut open less often when Germany went away with a 6-1 victory three years ago, even if we weren't remotely competitive overall. On that night though, their eye was in and they didn't even need to cut us open as they were belting them in from all angles and distances. Obviously we were far more confident, compact and clued in last night, don't get me wrong!
We weren't quite as synchronised as Celtic in their famous win over Barcelona a couple of years ago, but for some reason that game kept running through my mind. Obviously it had the David versus Goliath aspect but I think it was more the way you could see the belief grow and grow that this might actually happen as the game wore on, especially when we were starting to see a small bit more of the ball in their half approaching the hour mark.
I won't go through all of the players in too much detail because if ever there was a game that a team effort won the day, this was it. Finally we became the sum of parts and more. As mentioned, Randolph oozed composure which was infectious, his handling, in particular, excellent. I think it was worth losing a badly needed substitution such was his influence. Keogh wasn't taking any chances early on, hoofing everything in sight without a moments thought, but grew in confidence as the game wore on and picked more sensible options out of defence. O'Shea was our leader and the workrate from Brady, Hoolahan and Walters was just phenomenal. I think those three did the really hard running while the others played to the defensive system, more focussed on remaining concentrated and cutting off the space. That must be as mentally draining as the hard running is physically.
Shane Long - you really couldn't have wished a moment like that on a more likable guy, and there are few strikers capable of doing what he did anyway. I remember commenting on many similar types of opportunities which just happened to fall to Walters in the Georgia game, without pace these are not even chances to most forwards though. All Walters (and Murphy) can do is hold it up and try to bring others into play, but with Long it's a genuine chance. Once he gets his touch right there's simply no catching him, and my God did he get his touch right!
What a bonus, too, that Walters and McCarthy avoided picking up yellows that would have seen them miss Warsaw. I thought it was inevitable that one, if not both, would have got booked. Do we still look far more solid when Whelan is present? The evidence to the contrary is stacking up I think.
It could still blow up in our faces at the end of it all, but last night cannot be taken away. What a relief it is to reset the clock on our last significant win against a major force. Probably even more crucially, the new Lansdowne has been crying out for a night like that, a massive step on the road to making it a difficult mission for our opponents.
Just one more little point, is there really any need to refer to Trap in the aftermath of everything positive we do from here on in? All this talk of Trapologists and such I find a bit grating. The man has been gone for over two years at this stage, move on. It's not as if his last campaign was representative of his whole tenure, like him or loathe him. It's easy to forget that he was seconds away from a night like last night against the then then world champions in his first campaign too, which would have resulted in us gaining four points off them altogether. He didn't so much come in and steady the ship, but salvaged its remains from the depths of the ocean and got it sailing again. There were frustrations aplenty and his limitations and stubbornness were brutally exposed as time wore on and, without doubt, stayed a campaign too long, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking it was all bad.
PS - a big congratulations to Michael O'Neill, Northern Ireland and their posters on here. A truly magnificent achievement. They often took a big scalp while our eyes were on the bigger prize, but last night was a case of roles reversed. Hopefully we'll get a share of the bigger prize too though!
Last edited by DeLorean; 09/10/2015 at 1:26 PM.
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