Ireland Vs France (inc scores after 8.00pm)

thejollyrodger

I guess Kerr will release the team shortly. I hope he doesnt have Kilbane in the team and has enough players in the team that can score. I.E its not going to be a defensive line up.

I'm now going for a draw, 2-2.

thejollyrodger

The team is : -

______________Given
Carr____O Brien____Cunningham____O Shea
Finnan____Keane____Kilbane_______Duff
__________Keane_____Clinton

bizmark

Pires is a diveing bastard.

Ireland is looking good though

thejollyrodger

Morrison off - shame because he was playing great !!

Andy Reid on - looks as though he doesnt have the physical strength.

Ireland are playing well, even the likes of Kilbane are playing very well.

I hope the French dont steal a win because they dont deserve it.

Pires is a BAD CHEAT !!

Raskolnikov

bizmark wrote:

Pires is a diveing bastard.

Maybe he got a bug in his eye

France are cack, good to see the Irish contingent out-shouting the French too. I'd love to see us pull one over those overpaid prima-donna's.

thejollyrodger

I wouldnt say cac. The last 10-15 minutes was mostly one way French traffic. They are still a very good outfit even with all those players missing.

mike65

Pires must be thinking its an away game as he gets the bird, cheating surrender monkey! Ireland have played really well except for the final ball Morrison was having a good game so he's a big loss.

Mike.

bizmark

We should of won but a good draw never the less the team played great

PiE

Yea before the game I'd have jumped at a 0-0 result, now I feel they could have got more from it though.

Very well played.

PHB

Kilbane is having a fantastic season and I'm sure everyone will be really impressed with him tonight.

France were not cac, and Given saved us with two or three spectacular games

Raskolnikov

We played brilliantly night, a real gutsy preformance, don't think a single player could have been faulted. Notable mentions go out to Cunningham (tackled magnificently and shut out any French attacks) and Kilbane (some great runs and tackles). Hope that Dacourt is ok, he got his knee stood on in an accidental tackle, shame it wasn't Pires' knee underneath Keane's foot instead.

mike65

Does this count as a moral victory

One thought that occured to me (apart from Hamiltons inability to spot one black Frenchman from another) was that it was nearly a Premiership or ex-Premiership 22.

Mike.

A Dub in Glasgo

Excellent display from Ireland and looking good for Wednesday night

bizmark

Its not like we have to be at our best to win wensdays game tbh

The Muppet

A good performance and result from the team. I am usually critical of Kilbane but he had a good game tonight. We could easily be celebrating 3 points but we would have taken the 1 before the game. Pires is a cheat luckily it didnt pay off tonight.

thejollyrodger

Im not too sure about "we should have won" to be honest. As kerr said, the french would like to suck you in and hit you on the break. All in all a draw was a fair and good result away from home. Before the match I would have jumped at a draw and I wil gladly take it now.

Particularly pleased with the performance all around. I was slagging of Kilbane for ages but fair play to him he was defintely man of the match.

And Ried defintely has talent and performed well today but i still belive he needs to loose weight and toughen up his mental attitute, but did very well considering he is in division 1.

I hope Ireland do the business next wednesday and get the win. I think we can now win the group.

gimmick

Should have won it, but great performance. Sets us up nicely for the remainder. A good win over the Faroes on wednesday to boost our goal diff will do the world of good.

Ratings:
Given: 2 great saves. didnt have much to do, but did what he had to do well 8

O Shea: Out of position for most of the match. Very poor. Unlucky with his chance. I reckon he didnt think it would come to him. 5

O Brien : Partnership with Cunningham developing nicely. Did nada wrong. 7

Cunningham: Marshalled his defence very well 7

Carr: Excellent performance both defensively and attacking. Certainly made amends for his poor showing against the Swiss 8

Duff: Did well, but had to cover for O Shea too often. Didnt do anything wrong though 7

Keane: Quiet but effective 6

Kilbane: Not international class my hole. Absolutely outstanding this evening. Tacking and distribution top class. MOTM 9

Finnan: best game yet for ireland. 2nd best irish player tonight 8

Keane: No service, but didnt forrage enough. By his standards - poor 5

Morrison: Seemed to frighten the life out of that french Centre Half (Givet?). Ireland felt his loss 7

Sub:
Reid: Great display, as he was in an unusual role. 7

bizmark wrote:

Its not like we have to be at our best to win wensdays game

You have to be at your best to win EVERY game.

Big Ears

gimmick wrote:

You have to be at your best to win EVERY game.

No you don't , were only playing the Faroe Islands(who lost 6-0 to Switzerland) .
Although Liechenstein 2-2 Portugal........nah its still only the Faroe's .

Its not like France were at they're best when they beat them Islanders .

A great performance tonight , and Kilbane was outstanding , I think this group will go down to who ever gets the most points off Israel .

Ardent

We played very well, both sides deserved the draw. I thought it was funny how, after Reid came on, all you could hear for the duration of the match were shouts from the Irish bench along the lines "Andy get busy!", "Andy get stuck in!", Andy...!". I thought the occasion was going to be too much for him but he did OK.

Nuttzz

We should have beaten those cheese eating surrender monkeys

We must be a shoe in for the faroe game now

Kone

Nuttzz wrote:

We should have beaten those cheese eating surrender monkeys

The game could have gone either way, it was fantastic display by Ireland, I think we really missed having 2 out and out strikers though, had Clinton not gone off I think we might have won.

There was a great atmosphere in Stade De France, now how about we bring some of that great atmosphere back to Lansdowne!

Caesar_Bojangle

Kilbane had an outstanding game. I heard that Henry may be dropped by Domenech for the next game. I'm a big fan of Reid but he really could do with losing some weight if he has aspirations for the premiership.

LegacyUser

ye he was looking pretty chubbs alright...

Dewey

It was a brilliant display from the boys in green. The irish fans were excellent all night. I remember the post about Kilbane after the Swiss game with alot of people on this board saying he just isnt an International player......... :rolleyes:

you must be red faced now. I thought Kilbane was excellent and deserved his MOTM. It was a bold move by Kerr to bring on Reid for morrison but Reid he did very well, it was a blow losing Morrison as he was causing alot of problems for the french defence.

I thought Carr also had a great game. O'Shea had an ok game. i thought he could of been a bit better and he should of scored.

We could of won the game but we all would of took a 0-0 before the start of the match.

I will be disappointed if we dont beat the Faroes by at least 5-0.lol

gandalf

Well I can't say much more than the rest of you. They played an excellent game and were unlucky not to win. Again I would have settled for a point beforehand as well.

The key with Faroes is to go at them for the win. I hate the way Ireland can play too defensively at times against lesser teams (and I don't mean any disrespect to the Faroes with that comment). We have the players to get at least 4 goals against them if we play with the right attitude.

thejollyrodger

yeah Carr did have a good game, I was glad to see that. Good going forward and solid at the back apart from that one dodgy header back.

I defintely think O Shea just has a confidence problem. Last night listening to the sound with RTE (they actually used the mic's on the touch line for once !! ) I think he knows he should be going forward into positions, closing down etc but just looks hesitent. I can see Kerr and Hughton coaching that out of him and should be a good player for Ireland.

Reid did well and brought something else to the game but looks as though he REALLY needs to go on the slim fast;)

The team still hasnt fully settled, the likes of Miller et al may well get into the side soon and Kerr hasn't fully got the side playing the way he wants them. I still think there is more potential in the side and can play better than they did last night.

Against Cyprus the side showed that they can easily put away weaker sides and not be struggling all afternoon. I would like to see Ireland score early and keep the pressure on the full 90 minutes. I would like to see a 6 nill score line as I really think its not beyond the side.

jesus_thats_gre

Just back from Paris about 10 minutes ago.. It was a brill game by iteself but that stadium and the atmosphere generated by the Irish fans were incredible!! Out of this world!!!!

Big up!

ZENER

I hate getting too cocky before a game. Yes we SHOULD beat the Faroe Islands just like we should have hammered Lichtenstien all those years ago. I think it's important that we get stuck into them early and not pay them any respect at all - against weaker opposition we should be aiming to have the game won before HT IMO. That said I wouldn't put it against them to screw up on Wednesday, they put a lot into last nights game.

I was glad Brady and Dunphy had to eat their words about Zinadine Kilbane at half time, fantastic performance and worth MOTM any day for any team. I wish to christ Fergie would just go and buy Duffer, brilliant as always last night played 2 roles - defender and midfielder. I thought O'Shea was unlucky and I think that screwed his game up. Robbie Keane was quiet - I wonder was he afraid his namesake Roy had it in for him for putting itchyback in his jockstrap ?!

ZEN

Gangsta

ah it was a gr8 game even tho twas 0-0. Henry, Gallas and O'shea shud have buried their chances. France have been gettin unfair stick, going forward they were good but when saha returns i think france n particulary henry will do better as saha complements henry's style of play (as against the swiss in euro 04).

robbie keane is so over-rated.

BaZmO*

ZENER wrote:

I wish to christ Fergie would just go and buy Duffer, brilliant as always last night played 2 roles - defender and midfielder

I think the reason why Duff played so well in a defending role is thanks to Murinho. His defensive style is definitely rubbing off on Duff and thst's something that can only be good thing for the Irish squad.

B.

Boro

ZENER wrote:

Robbie Keane was quiet - I wonder was he afraid his namesake Roy had it in for him for putting itchyback in his jockstrap ?!

What was that about anyway! I thought he had to go for a ****e or something!

eirebhoy

Caesar_Bojangle wrote:

I'm a big fan of Reid but he really could do with losing some weight if he has aspirations for the premiership.

I personally think his weight is fine, i'm sure Kinnear would have done something about it if he was overweight. Look at James Beattie:
http://eur.news1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/xp/empics/20031210/17/883301746.jpg

Boro wrote:

What was that about anyway! I thought he had to go for a ****e or something!

New pair of jocks.

Great peformance and I can't see us not qualifying now. We could have been going into the Faroe's match 6 points behind both France and Swiss if the worst came to the worst so we've got to be happy.

The players were great, Kilbane dominated midfield and Roy did what he was asked. I've never seen Finnan play so well in midfield and if Benitez was watching he'll restore him to the team. Gallas won the battle with Duff. Carr was great, I thought O'Shea was better than most people are saying, O'Brien and Cunningham were their usual self's (5 clean sheets in their 6 games together). Morrison was good as was Reid. Robbie needs to break the record fast. Its great that the likes of Liam Miller can't even make the bench, a change from McCarthy's early days. Given's sav was superb.

The crowd were great and without them things could have been differerent on the pitch. Que Sera Sera was great. Bartez is a lunatic.

Morrison is out for a month BTW.

Jivin Turkey

Was at the game too, just home there. Was unreal, well done to all the travelling fans, lets just hope we can generate a similar atmosphere for the home games!

I have to say though I thought O'Shea and Carr were rock solid in defense, but were woeful going forward. I think the only time either of them got past their winger on the overlap was when Carr put in a great ball after 85mins. Maybe this is Kerrs cautious tactics away from home, but at times both Duff and Finnan got very isolated.

Ardent

Jivin Turkey wrote:

I have to say though I thought O'Shea and Carr were rock solid in defense, but were woeful going forward. I think the only time either of them got past their winger on the overlap was when Carr put in a great ball after 85mins. Maybe this is Kerrs cautious tactics away from home, but at times both Duff and Finnan got very isolated.

I wouldn't mind that too much, Pires and Wiltord could have got at us much more than they did if our full backs adopted a more attacking approach to the game. I feel we did enough to nick a win and were unlucky not to get the result.

thejollyrodger

I thought O'Shea was better than most people are saying,

Same here, i thought he continued to have his problems but made some good tackles and probably misses out playing in the same position all the time. I expect him to come right in another season or so.

eirebhoy

Did anyone from boards go to the Eiffell Tower meetup set up by the lads on foot.ie? I wasn't in Paris, just wondering.
http://www.kerins.eclipse.co.uk/irishtower.jpg

A couple of thousand turned up, probably would have been more if not for the rain. They had a few games of footie going aswell.

BaZmO*

eirebhoy wrote:

http://www.kerins.eclipse.co.uk/irishtower.jpg

Is the guy in the bottom left the guy the sleazy Doctor from the Carry On movies??

"Ding Dong!!"