Just out of curiosity, who are the top tier teams (and in this context I think discussion must be limited to Europe)? All international teams appear vulnerable or "imperfect" to me. France are World Champions and NL holders but are without a win in 6. Spain, Belgium, England, Germany - none without flaws there. I think on their day Portugal are as good as any.
My recollection of the away game was that we rode our luck early: Jota(?) miss and a penalty miss from a harsh decision. But a couple of incisive runs forward by Doherty and Coleman raised the tempo for us and got us into the game and we then played a really accomplished away performance: concede territory but keep them at bay and hit on the counter. We could have had a pen ourselves (Connolly) and we had 2 or 3 dangerous breakaways. It was an almost textbook away performance against a team that I'd rate as considerably better than us. Baz made a good save from a free kick late on and then came the two goals from a world class header of a ball but before that Portugal were getting a bit desperate.
I totally get the criticism of Kenny's tenure - most of it is deserved - but I think the performance in Portugal has to be acknowledged as very good. It's churlish to try to qualify it as "they should have scored first" (isn't that how football works?) or any other stuff like that.
As recently as Scotland away - Parrott scores / Browne doesn't handle the ball stupidly - we could have been appreciating a very good performance. We lost concentration and the midfield battle at key times it's true, but their midfielders are objectively better than ours.
I'd agree with that. Could it on another day have finished 5-1? I think so. But it didn't, and among other things that was down to resolute defending on our part which limited the effectiveness of Portugal's 29 shots. That's all part of football.
I don't think it needs be mutually exclusive to consider that we could (rather than should) have lost 5-1, but that we didn't because we defended very well and countered when we could.
There will be "another day" of course - four of them are coming up, against France/Holland - and one of those could very well finish 5-1.
You've said there for first paragraph a) you've given reasons for why we had a great away performance and dismiss others observations about X y or z. Then you inverse the argument and use X y z as reasons why the other games should/could be considered the same. You can't have it both ways. My observation was it was a one off Russia type backs to the wall type performance - but willing to counter and get them on the break unlike Russia game. We got lucky and scraped through that one with a draw but like Portugal on another day Russia would have scored some of those misses; except with that performance we backed it up consistently in that group
Last edited by paul_oshea; 22/11/2022 at 12:20 PM.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I think there's always a feeling around Portugal that they never quite live up to their potential; that they underachieve. Three wins across their last three World Cups for example. Better record at the Euros but bottled their own tournament by losing to Greece twice, and even when they won, they only won one match in 90 minutes.
They don't have the aura Germany/France/Spain/Holland/England or even Belgium have, despite of course the latter three not winning anything in decades, if ever. They all feel more consistent though.
Portugal are a bit of an enigma in a way
France only came 3rd in their group and England got relegated from the Nations League though. Germany are erratic. Brazil & Argentina (lost to Saudi ) aren't really in the mix as the discussion is who are the top tier sides in context of European qualifying groups. I think there's a fine line dividing Europe's best 6-8 teams. They're all very good but they have flaws. But it's a subjective opinion of course. I'd say you're right in the sense that Portugal would be second favorites ex ante against any of those 4, but really not by much.
(edited: I thought France got relegated but Tets corrected me)
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 22/11/2022 at 12:45 PM.
Portugal, second behind Spain in group A2, did better than all of those in their nations League campaign this year, except Belgium who also finished second. France finished third in their nations league group, so did Germany. and England were relegated from theirs without a win
the agenda is hilarious. no point engaging any more.
Latvia next up in March, a friendly just before we play France. Just announced.
120 more sleeps.
Oh God.
Lithuania, Malta, and now Latvia.
You can't help feel we're finding our level with these friendly opponents...
Is it home or away?
https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce....html?gender=u
Decent article from Gary Breen in the Indo,focuses on our lack of creativity in the final third and our poor defending from set pieces,Breen doesn’t have much confidence in Kenny rectifying either….
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
It seems vital for Kenny supporters to talk up any opposition we come against. Remember even Luxembourg and Azerbaijan were talked up. Strangely, prior to Kenny coming on board, other teams were all beatable. Barely coming behind Denmark and Switzerland was seen as an abject failure.
For the last 40 years we've competed with all the top teams, we qualify for tournaments or come close to qualifying. When we haven't, the manager gets sacked. Even Staunton drew with Germany and Czech Republic. We now are looking at the euro qualifiers as hopeless but that's where Kenny has dragged us. Into no hopers. It's some achievement in 2 years!
Bookmarks