Let's use this thread to discuss Ireland's group matches at the European Championships! First up, Croatia in Poznan tomorrow. No surprises in the starting XI: Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St. Ledger, Ward, Duff, Whelan, Andrews, McGeady, Doyle, Keane.
Not even Irish but love the country, people, and drink Least I remind everyone it's been 10 yrs since Ireland have been in a major tournament and surely this bunch will be full of p and v to amend that with vengeance. I like the Irish chances against Croatia and with a manager like Trap against Italy too. And after seeing the Danes pull an upset on ole Oranje you never know against Spain. In the end methinks the Lads in green will be Keane (pun intended) to make a good showing tomorrow and should advance if they manage three points from the Croats and one from either Italy or Spain. And hey Ireland plays it's first game on a Sun and the other "uber catholic nations" in the group are playing each other, so heres to a bit of heavenly light shinning on the bhoys in green. Erin go Bragh.
Another who is only Irish in desire (and a wee bit of blood) but I hope they win the whole thing. In reality, I think they can with a bit o luck get out of the group, I think this first game is very important. Then need to win or show that they have the defensive quality with scoring ability. They need to show 100% positive attitude in terms of effort. Cheers to Ireland, may I visit again soon.
Watching the Spain Italy match. Nothing to be worried about here. Ireland would be easily 3, 4 up on either side by the half.
Lots wrong with that performance. Stephen Ward being one of the lots. The back 4 had a complete nightmare and Trappatoni got his tactics wrong. Kudos to Bilic who was the better manager and Croatia who were the better side. It was a penalty for Ireland late on, but not certain that would have changed the result. Right result. Bring on Spain and Italy for an easy 6 points.
Nightmare game for us but I thought Andrews and Duff did well. Croatia's 3 goals were all lucky for them. But Netherlands won Euro 88 after losing to CCCP in the first game so you never know...
Yeah that game was so disappointing because those goals seemed to be filled with luck. Croatia was better but with luck the game could have been tied up or even won. The qualifiers I've seen were done much tighter. Tough road ahead but the the positive is that the boys can definitely play better...
Very bad start for us. First goal was awful. Second could have been blown up for a foul on Ward and well the third...That being said, Croatia looked dangerous every time they came forward. When we equalized we just sat back and gave their midfield way too much space, I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before they got a second. I've never been a fan of old Stuburtoni, we've hoisted him on a pedestal for getting us here, but has it been deserved? I mean, taking McGeady off and replacing him with Cox, when McClean and Hunt are sitting on the bench. You have to ask yourself if he's in the right frame of mind? The positive for us is the Spain Italy tie which only leaves them both one point up on us. It will be interesting to see the tactics Trappa will put into place for the Spain match. It is a must win now. Not entirely impossible, but it's going to be a very big mountain to climb. COYBIG!!!
Croatia were the better team and deserved the win. It was a bad move replacing McGeady with Cox and Walters should have been on from the start. I think that Ward has always been an accident waiting to happen and so it proved last night. The sad part about it is that his replacement in waiting is McShane. Marc Wilson and Cairan Clarke are sitting at home and both of them are solid premiership defenders. I feel that Keith Andrews was at fault for the first goal as he was out of postion and should have had it covered. The fact is that our unbeaten statistic counts for nothing when we come up against worthy opposition. The only decent opposition we scraped a draw against during that time was Russia. I feel that Walters and Doyle need to start against Spain as they will torture Ramos and co all night in a way Robbie can't. I would keep McGeady on as Arbeloa is nowhere near as good as Srna was last night and McGeady can take him.
Not at all. I firmly expect them to stick 6-7 past Spain and the only question with Italy is if they'll reach double figures.
Maybe true, maybe not, but 2 things. 1. Not all teams have played yet. 2. No team has played all its games yet. So let's hold off on post-mortems til the groups are actually over?
Croatia were always going to dominate midfield because they have better players than we do. Because of the possession we concede, we rely on solid defending and minimizing individual errors in order to grind out results. Last night that didn't happen. We lost. And I don't think disciplined defending will be enough to keep the Spanish at bay, so, sadly, I expect us to be playing for pride against Italy (where we could well succeed, going home with a typically Hibernian glorious failure). PS: Did anyone else think our goal had been disallowed because of the whistle from the crowd? I didn't even get to my feet - wasn't until ten or fifteen seconds later that I realized the goal had been given.
Actually disagree; I always thought that the Croatia game was going to be a draw (shows what I know). But I thought Ireland had the beating of Italy in them based on two reasons - Ireland have yet to lose to Italy under Trappatoni (should have won the game in Dublin) and Italy seem to have an unnatural fear of the wily Trappatoni. But I think the latter reason here goes out the window mostly when the Italians analyze this game. In short, Bilic out coached Trappatoni here. Yes, he had the better players, etc. but Bilic's game plan and tactics were superior to those of Trappatoni. I've a notion that if the teams were matched more closely on footballing talent, that Bilic still would have coached a better game. Trappatoni got his lines wrong here. And that will allay most fears that the Italians may have about the wily old fox. Emperor's New Clothes and all that. Now, if Ireland and Trappatoni were somehow to conjure a win against Spain or a very deserved draw, that would then give the Italians pause and cause to fear Trappatoni again.
I was gutted for the Irish last night, that Jelavic is some player though - his second touch is a celebartion!
First thing: The trolls can f-off. Second: We are who we are, not great but are good and hard to play against when everybody is 100% fit and not making any mistakes. That's the way it's always been. I think Gieven is not 100%, unable to get a good punt on the ball, slow to react for the first goal. Also, the hallmark of the previous 16 games we've played at Euro's/ World Cups is that nobody made any mistakes. Well except for Packie Bonner dropping that shot against the Dutch in 94. Last night there was a ton of mistakes and defensive lapses not normally associated with Ireland. I would expect that we won't be as poor as we were last night and while we may not beat the Spanish, they will give it a good go. Hey, you never know, they lost their opening game at the last World Cup and see what happened!
Great match and nice atmosphere on the stadium. You were undefeated against Italy in one qualifications, not over yet. Croatian fan entered on the court This older steward seems to be very strong and motivated