QuoteThat is the best we can ask for, I wouldnt mind let the suits of FAI about itOriginally Posted by Razors left peg
That would be an ideal fixture list I think
That is the best we can ask for, I wouldnt mind let the suits of FAI about it
Aren't the fixtures decided automatically now?
Can't argue with many of your points there, particularly the bit about how the score in the game dictates how you play.
It is used a fair bit though - Juve made the decision not to sack their manager when in mid-table about ten games in because xG showed they were effectively being unlucky, and that was born out over the next few games as their luck changed. Man Utd replaced (I think) Rooney on the basis of his xG - he was having an ok season, but stats showed a better striker would have been having a great one.
I think to your list of comments, you could probably add that it doesn't take bad refereeing decisions into account (afaik)
But in the case of the Serbia v Ireland game, I figures the disparity between xG and result was so large that it helped back up the idea that we were quite lucky in that game. I suppose I could have been a bit more energetic and linked some contemporaneous match reports (the BBC called it "a lucky draw", while the Indo summed it up with "A draw, given what has transpired, will feel like a victory for Ireland. Serbia will kick themselves for not winning this.) Or even linked in the thread from here at the time which has much anguished gnashing of teeth at the end of the 90 minutes.
I think they all point to the same result in the end - we were lucky to draw. (And I'd be happy with a lucky draw again this time.) One way (Infogol) was easier - but now you've made me do the work anyway.
That used to happen when agreements couldnt be made but maybe they have just decided to take away all negotiations
dont know but one team lux or azerb wont play in the final matchday
Matchday 4 1–2 September 2021 i want Portugal away
Matchday 1 24–25 March 2021
Matchday 2 27–28 March 2021
Matchday 3 30–31 March 2021
Matchday 4 1–2 September 2021
Matchday 5 4–5 September 2021
Matchday 6 7–8 September 2021
Matchday 7 8–9 October 2021
Matchday 8 11–12 October 2021
Matchday 9 11–13 November 2021
Matchday 10 14–16 November 2021
Remember the last time we drew Portugal?
We faced their so called "Golden Generation" of Figo, Rui Costa et al, and on paper the best Dutch side since the 1988 side who won the Euros.
And we pulled it off.
We might not have a player like Roy Keane, or a goalscorer like Robbie Keane anymore, but I don't think this Portuguese side is as good as that one, and there is no way on earth I'd compare this Serbia side to that Holland squad.
We can do this.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
I admire your optimism!
I can't come close to sharing it, but I'll admire it nonetheless!
20 years ago. Holland had a lot of egos that undermined them plus they lost earlier to Portugal.
We dont have a Roy Keane, he was him and Gary Kelly's boots when the latter was sent to the shower. We blew it in Holland, dont forget we should have won that group.
Portugal then was a disgrace at the WC.
Love the optimism but I just don't see it. I'd bet the house on us finishing third in that group right now.
We're nowhere near the standard of that 2002 squad at the moment. I don't know if a single player in our current team would make that 2002 campaign team. Egan over Breen maybe at a push? That would be it I think. And having Roy Keane was like having 12 on the field back then.
I have hope for us in the next few years. I think O'Shea and Collins have the makings of a great centre back partnership. Similarly Knight and Molumby in midfield. And then Connolly as well as hopefully Idah and Parrott up top. Options coming through in goal as well. There's real potential there, but not soon enough for these qualifiers unfortunately.
We're just not good enough at the moment and the managers system is inflexible and doesn't suit a lot of our players.
Hopefully this will be a positive campaign for us in terms of player development if nothing else.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Ah that's not true. Yes, we should have won in Amsterdam - but we should have lost to Portugal twice and to Holland at home. You can't look at one side and ignore the other
Yes, agreed there. Second in that group was a fair enough result. Anybody who says we should have won that group is forgetting that we genuinely rode our luck at times. Which is fair enough, there's always an element of luck. But "should have won the group"? Nah.
Don't forget that Mick left John O'Shea at home.Egan over Breen maybe at a push?
Dont remember the home match vs Portugal, but the away match was a well taken draw.
Vs Holland they started strongly but faded, we played better when without Kelly. Roy Keane best ever performance on a football pitch, he created the 1-0, he dribble past 3 dutch before being taken down passed it to duff cleverly prolongued it to and advancing finnan, a little roulette with his backheel, centered back, robbie did the dummy, mcateer on the far post, first timer from his left peg....goodbye Pinocchio Van Der Sar
nearly perfect recollection there... but the dummy on stam was from the duffer, and it was jason's right peg
and it started with ian harte taking the mick out of a dutch attacker (that bit usually gets cut out of the highlights) before passing to keane, who went of course went around van bommel as if he wasn't there. the 2010 van bommel would have gone down for a free
Last edited by brine3; 07/12/2020 at 8:30 PM.
The away match in Portugal was us being battered for an hour until Matty Holland hit a wonder strike.
We should have shipped 5 at home against Holland. Kluivert and Zenden had awful misses in the first 20 minutes and Richie Dunne and Stan were all over the shop
As brine says, we didn't ship 5, and that's football. But to say we should have won the group is nonsense.
The Portugese squad is amazing, I would say it's definitely better. Ronaldo, Fernandes, Jota, Bernardo Silva and Joao Felix just to name a few. The only place they might be a tiny bit weak is at the back but even then they have Guerreirio and Ruben Dias who are top players.
While I can't argue with that, how many of the Serbia squad would have been picked for the Dutch coming out of Euro 2000?
Ed de Goey, Edwin van der Sar, Sander Westerveld; Frank de Boer, Bert Konterman, Arthur Numan, Michael Reiziger, Jaap Stam; Paul Bosvelt, Phillip Cocu, Edgar Davids, Ronald de Boer, Clarence Seedorf, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Aron Winter, Boudewijn Zenden; Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Roy Makaay, Marc Overmars, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Peter van Vossen.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
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