Israel vs Croatia

**Stuttgart88** · 10/02/2005, 3:49 PM

Anybody see anything of last night's game? If so what's the conclusion?

I know nothing of Israel other than they have a real handful in this Benayoun guy who I've seen on SKY's Spanish football. Maccabi Tel Aviv (?) drew at home to Juve in the Champions League though not sure how many of them are Israeli internationals.

Their results so far in this group send out a mixed message. Good results against the better teams, not so impressive against the weaker teams.

**Stuttgart88** · 10/02/2005, 4:01 PM

We weren't losing to Cyprus with 15 mins to go though. And it was at home, wasn't it?

**Adrianovic** · 10/02/2005, 4:11 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

We weren't losing to Cyprus with 15 mins to go though. And it was at home, wasn't it?

All the lesser nations occasionally put up a fight, I think Ireland have done quite well in the recent past.

Sure, we've had scares, but other than Albania away (which was a tough game anyway), we haven't dropped points to a much lesser side in ages. Unless you count Switzerland as a lesser team.

Ade

**Green Tribe** · 10/02/2005, 4:38 PM

all i know is that they beat croatia 3-0 hmmmm....

**tricky_colour** · 10/02/2005, 6:14 PM

Israel came back to level the score three times.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1107976306853

Israel have lost just once (France) in their last 19 home
fixtures (by my calculations).

**Fergie's Son** · 10/02/2005, 7:22 PM

It's going to be a tricky match. It could be one of those games when half-way into it we start praying for a draw. This is where Kerr's vaunted preparation is going to have to come into play. We need to be prepared for them and not take them lightly. The weather should still be cool come March 26 so that shouldn't be a factor. This is a huge game for us as both France and the Swiss have dropped points against them. A win and we are in great shape to get to Germany.

**Green Tribe** · 10/02/2005, 11:51 PM

sorry i read in a paper it was 3-0, obviously the paper cannot write.

**concanta** · 11/02/2005, 8:34 AM

A draw will be ok but a win would really put us on our way. If we win - it will put massive pressure on France who play Israel in Israel 4 days after us - if those 2 games went our way - I would go as far as saying we could book our flights

**Stuttgart88** · 11/02/2005, 11:20 AM

Apparently the Croatia coach said that having played both of us recently he thought Israel was the better side.

**Stuttgart88** · 11/02/2005, 11:59 AM

Jaysus Pronane, if the grammar police were to be called in on every post on this site we'd have to close it down. Still, I'm sticking by my guns in thinking that a country or a team is a singular noun.

It is a bit of a theme though, other teams continuing to think we're a big up & at them type side. If they want to keep thinking it though that's fine by me.

**Bowsy** · 11/02/2005, 1:29 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

It is a bit of a theme though, other teams continuing to think we're a big up & at them type side. If they want to keep thinking it though that's fine by me.

I agree. This used to annoy me (specifically with the comments attributed to members of the Swiss camp before our last game with them) but now it doesn't. If teams view us as just a big, direct, phyiscal side and prepare accordingly then i'm happy as they are getting their preparations wrong.

**onenilgameover** · 14/02/2005, 1:46 AM

Here's a list of results from all Isreal's matshes in the last few years. It makes for interesting readin alright...with the results from the start of the qualifyin campaign they have jumped 13 places to 49th in the fifa rankings.

http://stats.football365.com/intnl/teams/IL.html

**eirebhoy** · 14/02/2005, 8:26 AM

Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

I couldn't care less what people say about us after we've beaten them.

We've twice as much of a chance of beating the Swiss in Lansdowne, and about the same chance of beating the French as we do of winning in Tel Aviv.

**eirebhoy** · 14/02/2005, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

We've beaten Portugal and the Czech Rep and drawn against Brazil in the last 12 months.

home, home, home, friendly, friendly, friendly.

Israel - 2 home defeats in about 30 matches.

**eirebhoy** · 14/02/2005, 5:40 PM

Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

Lads are we trying to be deliberately negative and pessimistic here? Israel is a nothing country - in fact, it's not even a proper country - and their team has never achieved anything. We should have enough confidence in ourselves to go out and take them apart. I've had enough of people on here making out as if we are going to Buenos Aires in 1986 or something and that we will be lucky to get nil. We are IRELAND FFS!!!

Give me one reason why you feel we should be all expecting a win? When was the last time we beat a team of Israel's current calibre away from home?

**Stuttgart88** · 15/02/2005, 8:27 AM

Lads, I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. Tuff Paddy says we should "take them apart". That's a bit strong. Eirebhoy cites "a team of Israel's current calibre". What calibre are they exactly?

I think we should be aiming for a win, no argument. But we'll probably have to play very well to do so. They seem to have a good coach, a decent team and at least one player, Benayoun, who is a class act. We have at least all of that too. But this is a huge home game for them which will make it very hard for us.

PS: can someone paste the Israel XI that played against Croatia, and their clubs?

**eirebhoy** · 15/02/2005, 10:00 AM

Tuff Paddy, until you give me at least one decent reason as to why we should all be expecting a win I'll be very happy with a draw.

France 0-0 Ireland
Switzerland 1-1 Ireland

Switzerland 2-0 Ireland
Albania 0-0 Ireland
Georgia 1-2 Ireland
Russia 4-2 Ireland

Iran 1-0 Ireland
Estonia 0-2 Ireland
Andorra 0-3 Ireland
Cyprus 0-4 Ireland
Portugal 1-1 Ireland
Holland 2-2 Ireland

Turkey 1-1 Ireland
Macedonia 1-1 Ireland
Malta 2-3 Ireland
Croatia 1-0 Ireland
Yugoslavia 1-0 Ireland

Belgium 2-1 Ireland
Lithuania 1-2 Ireland
Iceland 2-4 Ireland (Iceland were ranked 88th att)
Romania 1-0 Ireland
Macedonia 3-2 Ireland
Leichtenstein 0-5 Ireland

Portugal 3-0 Ireland
Austria 3-1 Ireland
Leichtenstein 0-0 Ireland
N.Ireland 0-4 Ireland
Latvia 0-3 Ireland

N.Ireland 1-1 Ireland
Lithuania 0-1 Ireland
Latvia 0-2 Ireland
Albania 1-2 Ireland
Spain 0-0 Ireland
Denmark 0-0 Ireland

Israel, unbeaten at home since '99 and just two defeats in their last 30 odd home games.

**Peadar** · 15/02/2005, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Tuff Paddy, until you give me at least one decent reason as to why we should all be expecting a win I'll be very happy with a draw.

I'll give you a reason.
In this campaign, we've just one goal against us.
Duff and Reid, at their best, are possibly two of the most creative Irish players seen since Liam Brady's days.
With enough quality ball to the forward players, we're likely to score against a team like Israel who are not particularly strong defensively.
Our defence can keep out the best of them as we've seen recently, plus the fact that they're fitter and sharper now than they were when we played Switzerland at the start of the season.

Of course we should be cautious and respect Israel but we've got good cause to be positive and should look to win all our remaining games.

History belongs in books, the time is now!

**eirebhoy** · 15/02/2005, 11:01 AM

Plenty of the teams in that list that we failed to beat would have had a worse defensive record than a goal a game (as is Israel's afaik). Tuff Paddy is expecting a win, I wouldn't even put us as favourites.