Republic of Ireland V Russia - Friday, 8th October 2010 - Euro 2012 Qualifier

[Crosby87]

Some say, Irish fans are not paying proper attention to this game.....
Some say they are wrong.....
Some say they are right......
Some say Rugby has surpassed Football in Ireland. Fan wise. Caring wise. Everything wise......
And nothing can change that......
Some say that is rubbish and the Irish fans will show up en masse for the tangle between the former USSR and the Current ROI. .....
Injuries....benchings.....young players getting blooded....or not.... all part of the game......
Opinions are thrust about.....and hearts are won....Or lost.....
All part of it?.......

Many on here think Russia is a good measure of just how far Trap can take this Irish team.....


Official Game Predictions and Game Day talk HERE because it just gets so Damned confusing for me to go from all the topics on Gameday.
Predictions?
With scorer please including the Russkie scorer if applicable. Anyone(s) hitting it on the head with scorers wins a new T Shirt,sweatshirt, cap, or snuggie (!) (maybe all 4) from me of the NY Yankees variety, mailable anywhere in the world. (It could also possibly be the Jets, depending how fat you are.) (Always new.)
Go Eire.

One entry per SN

[Sullivinho]

2-1. Doyle, Whelan & Arshavin.

[TrapAPony]

1-1

Keane and Pogrebnyak

[SwanVsDalton]

1-1. Keane and Pogrnebyak (or however it's spelled).

[Crosby87]

Swan just how far up Ponys ass are you?
Nah Just kidding.

[Noelys Guitar]

Ireland 2-0. McGeady and Doyle (assists by the crowd).

[Colbert Report]

0-0 boring draw. I'll happily take one point.

[rebelmusic]

1-0 goal from Lawrence, and final 20 mins of heartstopping tension

[Exiled]

Gonna be optimistic and go for a 2-1 Irish win.

Scorers: Keane, Arshavin, with McGeady to bag the winner with his first international goal.

[paul_oshea]

well a worry i have is that they come all guns blazing and get an early goal....

still i think 1 - 1(mcgeady and arshavin, if kilbane helps it on the way im still right though!) the usual draw to be honest.

So everyone that predicts a 1-1 draw and is right gets all those items crosby?

[ifk101]

I'd imagine Trapattoni would be happy with a draw and so would I. The Russians might feel the need to press for a win following their defeat to Slovakia so hopefully some of our more attack minded players can take advantage of the extra space this may offer.

If we could get the win tonight it would be a massive boost to our qualification hopes and a massive dent in Russia's hopes.

[elroy]

No No No No. I am normally in the lets not lose, Id be happy with a draw brigade. But not after the last campaign. If anything was learned from the last campaign (other than Thierry Henry is a pr*ck) is that drawing our games at home cost us automatic qualification. We need to win tonight and I think we can exploit this apparently weak Russian defence.

Im not a massive fan of his by any means but for some reason I think tonight may well be Aiden McGeady's night (at last).
So Im going for a 1-0 win, thanks to an early McGeady goal followed by over an hour of edge of the seat nerve wrangling action.

[AlaskaFox]

1-0 Kilbane, Green with the assist. Prove the doubters wrong.

[Fitzy]

Every time we play a qualifier it is noticeable that very few people actually back the opposition to win. This is ridiculous when you consider we are playing Russia, and our last competitive home win against a top country came on September 1st 2001 against Holland. However, I agree with Elroy, we desperately need to step up tonight and win this game. We'll get nothing in Moscow, we never have in the past, so we need to beat them tonight. We definitely need to beat both Russia and Slovakia at home, and hope that we nick a draw over there. That's the way we used to qualify when Jack Charlton was our manager.

I am very worried about tonight's game. The thought of any of the Russian wingers running at Kilbane all night scares me, and I cannot believe that Trap cannot see that. Put John O'Shea at left back and play Foley, Wilson or Coleman at right back (obviously not McShane). Kilbane is an accident waiting to happen and Russia will try and exploit this at every opportunity tonight. I would also have put Darron Gibson in for Green, as he looked out of his depth in Armenia. If Ferguson trusts him to play their for Man Utd then surely he must be a better option than Green. I'd actually rather play Wilson or James McCarthy ahead of Green in that position as well.

The only hope we have tonight is to exploit Russia's inability to deal with long balls. Emile Heskey had a field day against their twin centre halfs when England beat them 3-0 at Wembley in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. That was a very strange game that Russia dominated for long periods, but England ended up winning comfortably by exploiting their weaknesses. I'm hoping that Kevin Doyle plays like he did against Armenia and Keane takes any half chances that come his way. It's going to be a long, long night, but I'm praying that we don't sit back and invite them onto us all night, as I think we'll get exposed

[noddy102]

1-0, late Lawrence winner.

[DeLorean]

I think we will keep a clean sheet. Fairly hopeful we might nick one, but think the scoreless draw is very likely also.

0-0

[Dodge]

Every time we play a qualifier it is noticeable that very few people actually back the opposition to win. This is ridiculous when you consider we are playing Russia, and our last competitive home win against a top country came on September 1st 2001 against Holland.

I guess that depends on whether you count Russia as a top team. Failed to qualify for WC at same stage as ireland and recently lost at home to Slovakia. Absolutely nothing to fear.

[Hibs4Ever]

I guess that depends on whether you count Russia as a top team. Failed to qualify for WC at same stage as ireland and recently lost at home to Slovakia. Absolutely nothing to fear.

Weren't to great in their group games for 2010 either, lucky 2-1 win over Wales, drew with Azerbaijan, and only neat Leichtenstein 1-0

[Straightstory]

0-0 - which will prove costly in the long run.

[ifk101]

Russia are the top seeds in the group. We are the third seeds, lest we forget.

Granted they're not the strongest top seeds we could have been drawn with but there're certainly no pushovers. A number of players will need to play beyond themselves tonight for us to win.