Cyprus vs. Republic of Ireland - 05/09/09 [mod warning post #293]

PCros

vs.

Live on Sky Sports 1 from the GSP Stadium in Nicosia. Lets get the ball rolling.....

Teams:

Cyprus: (Probable squad - will update when announced)
Goalkeepers: Michalis Morfis, Antonis Georgallides, Sofronis Avgousti

Defenders: Stelios Okkarides, Marios Elia, Paraskevas Christou, Elias Charalambous, Andreas Constantinou

Midfielders: Marinos Satsias, Giorgos Panagi, Chrysis Michael, Constantinos Charalambides, Alexandros Garpozis, Efstathios Aloneftis, Marios Nicolaou, Jason Demetriou, Christos Marangos

Forwards: Nektarios Alexandrou, Ioannis Okkas, Yiasoumis Yiasoumi

******************
Republic of Ireland:
Goalkeepers: Shay Given (Man City), Keiren Westwood (Coventry), Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe)

Defenders: John O'Shea (Man Utd), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Richard Dunne (Man City), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Kevin Kilbane (Hull), Eddie Nolan (Preston), Sean St Ledger (Preston)

Midfielders: Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Damien Duff (Fulham), Darron Gibson (Man Utd), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Keith Andrews (Blackburn), Liam Miller (Unattached), Stephen Hunt (Hull), Andy Keogh (Wolves), Liam Lawrence (Stoke)

Strikers: Caleb Folan (Hull), Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Shane Long (Reading), Leon Best (Coventry).

thorbarry

sheet, is this not on RTE?

PCros

Not according to this.....http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12942,00.html. They have the South Africa, Italy and Montenegro games!

Apparently the Italy match in Croker will be a day time kick off.

SantryRed

2nil loss.

JackieRyan

I think ireland can squeeze this 2-1 to be honest

thorbarry

PCros wrote: »

Not according to this.....http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12942,00.html. They have the South Africa, Italy and Montenegro games!

ARSE

PCros

I think Ireland will win it 3-0. Cyprus have lost 4 of their last 7 matches with us only losing 1 out of our last 7 matches, they even got hammered 6-1 by Albania 3 weeks ago!

I think people are still shaking from the night we lost 5-2, it was 3 years ago lets move on.

angel01

Another one where I am not too confident. I think a 1-0 win to Ireland

thorbarry

PCros wrote: »

I think Ireland will win it 3-0. Cyprus have lost 4 of their last 7 matches with us only losing 1 out of our last 7 matches, they even got hammered 6-1 by Albania 3 weeks ago!

I think people are still shaking from the night we lost 5-2, it was 3 years ago lets move on.

Well said, fair enough we lost a friendly to Australia, but Cyprus have been getting much much poorer results, and we have been doing very good in this group. We are quite solid, without being spectacular

eirebhoy

PCros wrote: »

I think people are still shaking from the night we lost 5-2, it was 3 years ago lets move on.

Italy scraped a last second win after Cyprus were destroying them over there so they do still have it in them.

Konstantinou and Makridis are suspended for Cyprus.

Bobalicious93

eirebhoy wrote: »

Konstantinou and Makridis are suspended for Cyprus.

Really? That's great news. That's alot of their attacking threat gone then.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

God I'm so nervous about this one.

I pray they'll self destruct like they did against Albania a few weeks back but they're a totally different proposition in Nicosia.

Have a feeling it'll be a draw - I can see it now. We'll go one up courtesy of a penalty after 15 mins but we'll be on the backfoot for the rest of the match because Whelan and Andrews are clueless in possession, not tackling the opposition and just literally marking space. Whilst we are just about to stop looking through our fingers, in the last minute Kilbane makes a terrible pass back to Given which is intercepted and Cyprus score.

Kilbane later sings rebel songs on the way home as per usual, Glenn Whelan threatens to expose the incriminating photos of Trap if he drops him and Liam Miller persists with light sexual favours.

Unearthly

I hope we get out of this with a win - any type of win and never draw this team in another qualifier ever again.

eirebhoy

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

Really? That's great news. That's alot of their attacking threat gone then.

Yeh and thankfully Makridis is a winger considering how poor we've been at full back.

I don't really care how we play in this game as long as we can win. We'll be playing much better football once Reid is back from injury (and the performance in Montenegro is good enough football for me - we looked like a decent intelligent team away from home). Reid played in an hour last week behind closed doors and is in contention for the Carling cup.

PCros

Yeah whats with Cyprus being in our qualification group for the past few tournaments? They're like a bad rash!

WCQ 2002 & 2006 and ECQ 2008!

PCros

eirebhoy wrote: »

we looked like a decent intelligent team away from home

True, we're a very shakey squad when playing at home but seem to be very confident away. The Italy match is one for example.

Draupnir

Ioannis Okkas

Great that they are missing Konstantinou who gave Dunne are hard time but Okkas is a serious threat, he ripped us a new one in Cyprus three years ago and really makes them tick. Need to shut him down and we have a great chance of a good win.

parasite

I read that their first choice goalkeeper is out and the backups are quite poor

Nalz

Liam Miller (Unattached)

J-O-K-E

Ronan Raver77

Read a good article on Andy Reid in the Sunday Indo a guy who wants to play for his country and has a club!!!! Was in cyprus a few years ago was great craic in Ayia Napa street full of Irish fans singing away till the wee hours:) (was so much better than the match which we just won by 1-0 i think it was 2006!!!)
Hard to call this one as we haven't done too well over there recently fingers crossed we shall win.

Mikeyt086

My predictions:

Ireland to win 1-0.

Richard Dunne to be man of the match.

Shay Given putting in a heroic performance.

Robbie Keane scoring with his thigh, or arse.

Ireland being totally bossed in midfield.

Caleb Folan coming on and winning every single ball that goes above 5ft into the air.

Duff

Mikeyt086 wrote: »

My predictions:

Ireland to win 1-0.

Richard Dunne to be man of the match.

Shay Given putting in a heroic performance.

Robbie Keane scoring with his thigh, or arse.

Ireland being totally bossed in midfield.

Caleb Folan coming on and winning every single ball that goes above 5ft into the air.

Just another match so.

McGrath5

PCros wrote: »

True, we're a very shakey squad when playing at home but seem to be very confident away. The Italy match is one for example.

What do you think it is? The Croke park crowd having a high level of expectation and the team not living up to it?

PCros

Perfect Choice wrote: »

What do you think it is? The Croke park crowd having a high level of expectation and the team not living up to it?

Yep seems like the pressure is off them when playing away.

SantryRed

PCros wrote: »

True, we're a very shakey squad when playing at home but seem to be very confident away. The Italy match is one for example.

Maybe it had something to do with them being down to 10 men?? Ireland were shockingly shaky away to Bulgaria too.

shane86

PCros wrote: »

Apparently the Italy match in Croker will be a day time kick off.

Where did you hear that?

Beautiful if it is- means a kick off at midnight here in Oz so rather than drinking all night and falling asleep in the pub and getting thrown out at 5am like the Bulgaria match

tbh it will be on RTE (Cyprus) fairly sure they bought the rights for all qualifiers this time.

lisbon_lions

I hear Andy Reid put in a man of the match performance against Norwich in the Carling Cup last night. Why o why is he not in there???
Its depressing the midfield we have at the moment

edit: just look at the composure of one of his goals from last night
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/3271926/

PCros

lisbon_lions wrote: »

Why o why is he not in there???
Its depressing the midfield we have at the moment

Coz himself and Trap have big egos. I'd say Trap is just teaching him a lesson.

PCros

shane86 wrote: »

Where did you hear that?

A few of the football sites have it down as a 3:00pm kick off for the Italy match.

Euro_Kraut

Good news! RTE are showing the games live.

They are selling advertising space here: http://tvsales.rte.ie/advertising/tvspecials.htm

PCros

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Good news! RTE are showing the games live.

They are selling advertising space here: http://tvsales.rte.ie/advertising/tvspecials.htm

Cool, must be shared rights with Sky.

gosplan

lisbon_lions wrote: »

I hear Andy Reid put in a man of the match performance against Norwich in the Carling Cup last night. Why o why is he not in there???
Its depressing the midfield we have at the moment

edit: just look at the composure of one of his goals from last night
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/3271926/

In fairness, he played 7 minutes of football in the three league games for Sunderland. He played last night as Sunderland were resting their regular midfield.

I appreciate that the selection of Miller is pretty pointless but we know that bar an injury disaster there's no way Miller is getting on the pitch. As I see it, Trap has four central midfielders - Gibson, Whelan, Andrews and S.Reid. What's the point of organising what would undoubtedly be a very public recall when there's no way Andy Reid will play.

Fair enough that people argue for the inclusion of Delap, a premiership standard footballer who might actually get a game or bring something to the table, but the Andy Reid thing is just a dead duck at this stage.

Coillte_Bhoy

PCros wrote: »

Cool, must be shared rights with Sky.

RTE have guarnateed rights to all qualifying games afaik.

FreeOSCAR

Ireland to win 2-0....

Italy to beat Georgia

Montenegro to get a shnakey draw in Sofia.

Inflatable hammers on the ready people!

LuckyLloyd

Foley is currently injured which is a shame as I would have liked to start him. With the listed squad, the team pretty much picks itself:

---

Given

---

O' Shea

---

Ledger

---

Dunne

---

Kilbane

---

Whelan

---

Andrews

---

McGeady

---

Duff

---

Keane (C)

---

Doyle

---

Kelly isn't getting his game at Fulham right now. Keogh has looked good thus far for Wolves, but I would be weary of sticking him in after his nightmare in Bari. Folan would have a case to start on the basis of how effective his shifts have been in the campaign to date, but he's a whopper, whopper impact option to have off the bench. Ditto Hunt.


It will be a very difficult tie, played in inhospitable conditions. They'll believe they are more than capable of winning the game. That said, the above 11 is good enough to find a win. And Trapp has already demonstrated with the Italian game that he will gamble if he deems it necessary to do so.

Ultimately, if we can't get a win in this type of game we don't really deserve the trip to South Africa anyway. Fingers, toes, everything crossed.

PCros

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

It will be a very difficult tie, played in inhospitable conditions.

Nah, a few thousand supporters will still be on the holliers over there and will go to the match. Sure last time we had 15000 supporters to their 3000 supporters, the Cypriot FA were giving the tickets away to try and get home fans to attend.

LuckyLloyd

PCros wrote: »

Nah, a few thousand supporters will still be on the holliers over there and will go to the match. Sure last time we had 15000 supporters to their 3000 supporters, the Cypriot FA were giving the tickets away to try and get home fans to attend.

Was mainly thinking about the probable high levels of heat and humidity!

McGrath5

My heart says a win, but my head says it will be a draw. I'm thinking it will finish up 1-1, but I hope to god i'm wrong.

PCros

So is anybody heading over for this match? A bit of a holiday too!:D

The Rooster

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

With the listed squad, the team pretty much picks itself:

---

Given

---

O' Shea

---

Ledger

---

Dunne

---

Kilbane

---

Whelan

---

Andrews

---

McGeady

---

Duff

---

Keane (C)

---

Doyle

---

St. Ledger is out injured, so O'Shea will play centre half and we'll have to bring someone else in at right back.

thorbarry

The Rooster wrote: »

St. Ledger is out injured, so O'Shea will play centre half and we'll have to bring someone else in at right back.

kelly or mcshane really... neither of them fill me with any amount of confidence

Dublin_Gunner

thorbarry wrote: »

kelly or mcshane really... neither of them fill me with any amount of confidence

I'd rather go with 3 at the back than play either of those TBH.

I still predict a comfortable enough Ireland victory.

2 or 3 nil would do me.

_blank_

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

but he's a whopper, whopper impact option to have off the bench. Ditto Hunt.

Given the managers prior record when it comes to subs, this should not even be considered to be a valid point.

Dublin_Gunner

Des wrote: »

Given the managers prior record when it comes to subs, this should not even be considered to be a valid point.

You mean like, the Italian game?

Xavi6

7.30pm kick off? Ah FFS :mad:

The Rooster

thorbarry wrote: »

kelly or mcshane really... neither of them fill me with any amount of confidence

I think McShane is injured too, so its highly likely that it'll be Kelly.

Another option would be to put Andrews at right back, where he played for Blackburn a number of times last season, but that would mean Gibson in midfield.

Het-Field

Im far more confident then I was in 2006. I have it on record, where I predicted an Ireland defeat in Nicosia in 2006, and i also mentioned that it wouldnt be only by the odd goal that we would lose.

I think the squad is strong enough to get something out of this game. Defensively we have been rock sold for 16 months (save for the Poland, and Australia games), and I feel that there is always a goal in the team.

Konstantinou had a trial at West Ham last summer, and was muck on legs. We made him look like a world beater in 2006. I feel though that wihout Konstantinou, Okkas can be given more attention. Plus I dont feel Cyprus have the same wind in their sails as they had in 2006.

Ireland by a goal !

Kirby

Hoping for a win, but I'm not convinced that Trapp will pick the right team....especially at full back and midfield.

Praying for a win, but am predicting a draw. 2-2 perhaps.

GLaDOS

Het-Field wrote: »

Ireland by a goal !

Motto of our qualification campaign

PCros

I really do think that we will win well, I think the squad will be looking for a bit of redemption. As another poster said Cyprus don't have that spark they had the last couple of years.

thomond2006

Is Steven Reid near fitness?