Ireland vs Croatia - Match thread

kevohmsford

No James McClean at all. Disappointing game.

SirDelboy18

Paparazzo wrote: »

We weren't woeful, 15 shots to croatia's 20. And considering we had a definite peno not given, and their first goal was a complete fluke, we weren't that bad.
Can't picture us getting anything against Spain or Italy though

We were. We were a shambles Bill.

RoryMac

So disappointing, we usually build our results on the back of our defensive performances but our defence let us down tonight.

I thought we held our own in the 1st half but defensive errors cost us dearly. Most worrying thing is Croatia were poor too so doesn't bode well for the next 2 games.

Paparazzo

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

Ah dunno if I'm horny or hungry!

Have a **** onto a cracker

Francie Barrett

Oatesy23 wrote: »

Subs were terrible from Trap. Why no wingers.

Ireland 2-1 Spain (Torres OG x2, Torres)
Ireland 1-0 Italy (Balotelli OG)

'mon boys

Cox looked like he gave a sh!t when he came on in fairness.

Bodhisopha

El Spearo wrote: »

fairly disagree with dunphy there...

i dont think many gave 100% out there...i dont mind losing to the better team, but i would want them to show more heart than tonight

Heart is overrated. How about playing some football?

irish bloke

Trampas wrote: »

Supporters in stadium did us proud

Sick of being proud TBH.
Would rather be winners

handsomecake

They Wouldn't get a kick in a stampede But that's what you deserve when you play anti football to get to a tournament and have all your best footballers in the stand or at home.

Victory for football.

Fortune favours the brave

Seaneh

No shape.
No organisation.
No imagination.
No ****ing hope.

We were terrible.

****ing Simon Cox left midfeild.

Absolute joke tacticly.


Worst thing is we have two more years of this ****e.

Francie Barrett

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Cox looked like he gave a sh!t when he came on in fairness.

Both Cox and Walters were excellent and Long wasnt bad either. We hadnt a proper chance other than the goal in the first half tonight. 2nd half we created numerous chances. Andrews could have a brace alone.

partyatmygaff

Disappointing ... and seeing how Spain and Italy played earlier on today I'm starting to doubt if we'll even get a single point let alone get out of the group.

gandalf

Well that was a very painful watch. The fans at the match were a credit to the country. We don't have a skillful midfield and in reality those who are there are not allowed play at all, tactically we do not play any meaningful football at all. I actually feel for our forward players because beyond a ball being launched up at them in the air they have nothing to work off. I believe an Irish team allowed to play could have taken that Croatian team.

If we play anything like this in the next two games we have a good chance to become the worst team in the Championship. Very disappointing as I truly believe this Irish team can play so much better if they are allowed to.

tdv123

Paparazzo wrote: »

We weren't woeful, 15 shots to croatia's 20. And considering we had a definite peno not given, and their first goal was a complete fluke, we weren't that bad.
Can't picture us getting anything against Spain or Italy though

Agree with that best performance ever from Ireland in reality, results don't tell the whole truth.

Paparazzo

Never noticed that foul on Ward for the croatia goal. Shafted by the ref! Makes no difference now, roll on spain

dsmythy

Bilic 1-0 Trap

G.K.

Ref not good.

You guys were unlucky with all 3 goals. Esp 1/3.

RayCon

Seaneh wrote: »

No shape.
No organisation.
No imagination.
No ****ing hope.

We were terrible.

****ing Simon Cox left midfeild.

Absolute joke tacticly.


Worst thing is we have two more years of this ****e.

Oh **** off will ya ... here's the baby , where's the bathwater so you can **** them both out.

You were naive if you thought we'd walk Croatia ... I still believe we can draw with Spain and beat Italy ... unfortunately I still think that wont be enought but **** off with you're ****e-ology

tdv123

dsmythy wrote: »

Bilic 1-0 Trap

Was actually 3-1, but whatever.

dsmythy

RayCon wrote: »

Oh **** off will ya ... here's the baby , where's the bathwater so you can **** them both out.

You were naive if you thought we'd walk Croatia ... I still believe we can draw with Spain and beat Italy ... unfortunately I still think that wont be enought but **** off with you're ****e-ology

.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Simon Cox on the left wing will forever be one of life's great mysteries. McGeady hadn't done much apart from the free-kick, but that sub totally gave zero balance on the left flank.

bizmark

RayCon wrote: »

Oh **** off will ya ... here's the baby , where's the bathwater so you can **** them both out.

You were naive if you thought we'd walk Croatia ... I still believe we can draw with Spain and beat Italy ... unfortunately I still think that wont be enought but **** off with you're ****e-ology

Hes right with every thing he said and whats worse its hardly a new thing this is ireland nearly every single game under trap every game its a nervous ride while we watch ireland self destruct after scoreing a goal against nearly any level opposition

Amirani

gandalf wrote: »

If we play anything like this in the next two games we have a good chance to become the worst team in the Championship. Very disappointing as I truly believe this Irish team can play so much better if they are allowed to.

I think we are probably the worst team in the tournament. Us and Ukraine being the bottom 2 anyway. I don't think we can play much better either, not in a technical sense. That said, I don't think we're out of this thing yet.

IamtheWalrus

You can't the Irish self-deprecation.

wonderfullife

most disappointing bit is we weren't ripped apart. 3 very very sloppy goals conceded and Shay didn't have much else to do. Denied a clear penno too.

Assuming the best we can do v Spain is a draw, i suppose we want Italy to beat Croatia leaving the group as follows:

Italy - 4
Croatia - 3
Spain - 2
Ireland - 1

Hence if Spain beat Croatia and we beat Italy we go through. Optimism.

Realism is now looking nil points Eurovision style. Even Jedward beat that!

gebbel

It's probably all about damage limitation from now on and the team can still do us proud if they show some real fight.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

I'd like to remind the 'we're only Ireland' people that Croatia is a smaller country.

Francie Barrett

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

I'd like to remind the 'we're only Ireland' people that Croatia is a smaller country.

Best left back is back home watching the match. Our best midfielder is watching the match from the stands and oir brightest attacking talent is sat on the bench.

Seaneh

RayCon wrote: »

Seaneh wrote: »

No shape.
No organisation.
No imagination.
No ****ing hope.

We were terrible.

****ing Simon Cox left midfeild.

Absolute joke tacticly.


Worst thing is we have two more years of this ****e.

Oh **** off will ya ... here's the baby , where's the bathwater so you can **** them both out.

You were naive if you thought we'd walk Croatia ... I still believe we can draw with Spain and beat Italy ... unfortunately I still think that wont be enought but **** off with you're ****e-ology

i never thought we would walk over Croatia but I expected us to give them a ****ing game.

We are probably going to have the worst point and goal total in the Championships.

We hadnt a clue what to do on the pitch.

Traps fans claimed we were "tight at the back" and "hard to break down" and "organised".

Are we ****.

Hank Scorpio

Agree with Dunphy *dirty*

IamtheWalrus

What's Eamo's take on it? I need an opinion for work tomorrow.

Rega

Bilic got it spot on. had his midfield and forwards press the Irish backs and not give them any time on the ball. Worked perfectly. Defenders panicking and playing silly passes.

The goals were fierce unlucky. A flukey header. A possible foul on Ward for the second. In off the keeper for the third. More bad luck in one game than we've had to endure in years.

Our goal was nicely taken. Throw in a decent penalty appeal and the result could have been a bit different.

One thing I hate is right footed wingers playing on the left and vice versa. It becomes terribly predictable cutting in all the time. Everyone saw how good McGeady was on the right against Bosnia but he never seems to get a look there with Ireland.

Cox on the left? I don't get that at all.

Ah well, onwards and upwards. We're still only a point behind Spain and Italy. Éire abú!

niallo27

Why are people putting all the blame on trap, the players let him down tonight, that wasnt a typical irish performance.

Eirebear

RayCon wrote: »

You were naive if you thought we'd walk Croatia ... I still believe we can draw with Spain and beat Italy ...

lol.
Deluded?Confused?Drunk?

Nuri Sahin

nuxxx wrote: »

Agree with Dunphy *dirty*

Ditto.

Kirby

People need some perspective.

We were unlucky today. Goal one was a deflected cross, goal two was both offside, a foul and a sliced clearance all in one, and goal three came off the post and Shay's head.

No rub of the green there at all. Croatia were the better team, but Italy are better than us and we have done well against them the last 4 occassions having not lost once. We are regularly a worse team. Russia are better than us too. We still got a draw in Moscow.

The difference is that we were lucky then, and unlucky tonight. Thats football. The system that got us there is the same system that saw us lose 3-1 tonight. Let's not lose our heads.

On the plus side, Andrews looked pretty decent all game and did himself no harm finding a premiership club.

Renn

niallo27 wrote: »

Why are people putting all the blame on trap, the players let him down tonight, that wasnt a typical irish performance.

It was a typical Irish performance. Just happened that the opposition were good in front of goal with their chances.

mike65

On a good night Ireland are the Stoke City of international football, well organised, obdurate and can find the goal to nab a result. However tonight they were Wolves, Far too open, sloppy in defence with a couple of fairly strange substitutions thrown in the mix by a manager who didn't seem to know what he was doing. Ireland were robbed of a penalty and that might have just have swung the game back for a draw but unlikely. The Croates have better footballers who'd played better football.

Leiva

nuxxx wrote: »

Agree with Dunphy *dirty*

It's one thing to agree with Dunphy, but it's another thing to keep ones mouth shut until/waiting til things go wrong .

As Brady said why didn't he say all this before kick off?

dfx-

Have to say I've seen Ireland play worse, Russia away and Armenia at home in particular, but the off-the-line defending and non-clinical finishing in those two games can only last so long.

Each game has a life of its own and football is a funny old game. Write us off at your peril is what i say. We played muck against France in Croke Park back in 2009 but played the game of our lives against them in Paris. If we dont succeed then fair enough sure we were up against fantastic footballing sides.

Helix

irish bloke wrote: »

Sick of being proud TBH.
Would rather be winners

that's never going to happen

Paparazzo

Leiva wrote: »

It's one thing to agree with Dunphy, but it's another thing to keep ones mouth shut until/waiting til things go wrong .

As Brady said why didn't he say all this before kick off?

Dunphy is a reporter by day, by night he's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyb1KYiFkBM

noodler

Okay I am over it now.

I am going to build the Spanish game up in my head from this point onwards to exacerbate the disappointment!

noodler

Leiva wrote: »

It's one thing to agree with Dunphy, but it's another thing to keep ones mouth shut until/waiting til things go wrong .

As Brady said why didn't he say all this before kick off?

Dunphy has been saying it for 4 years.

I admit he wasn't vocal right before the game but to say he has kept his mouth shut is not really correct.

Hank Scorpio

Feel bad for Brady tbh

tdv123

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

I'd like to remind the 'we're only Ireland' people that Croatia is a smaller country.

"You'll never beat the Irish" ............well excepts maybe tonight but thats it.

edgecutter

Well not a great start, but I'm glad we were are here at the finals rather than wondering what may have been.

Given 6: Not his fault for the goals

Ward 4: Found out badly and kept giving the ball away
Dunne 6: Slow start, but got better
St. Ledger 6: Got the goal. Looked nervous at times
O'Shea 5: Needed him to attack more. His defending wasn't great either

McGeady 4: Poor
Whelan 5: Needs to stamp his authority more. Was invisible for long periods
Andrews 6: Improved late on, but was overrun in midfield
Duff 6: Look dangerous when in position which was rare

Doyle 6: Though he played OK and tried to win the ball. Didn't think he should have been subbed
Keane 4: Had a shout for a penalty. Overall he was extremely poor, but in fairness he had no service

SUBS:
Walters 5: Won a lot of the ball.
Cox 5: Tried hard but why was he on the wing?
Long N/A

Overall disappointing performance. Still don't think Croatia are great shakes, but we really didn't get started. Hopefully Trap will use a different formation. I think we will need to have 5 in midfield and use either Cox or Walters upfront and leave Keane on the bench.

keith16

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

What's Eamo's take on it? I need an opinion for work tomorrow.

Just go into work drunk and you will be fine.

bbbbb

My fear now is that we'll be seen as the whipping boys of the group, and Spain & Italy now not only need/expect to beat us, but need to beat us by more than the 2 goal margin of tonight.

Professional Griefer

Why was Cox brought on instead of McClean? Shocking sub.