Ireland v Italy -

thelad95

It's been frustrating watching the handful of games under Martin O'Neill so far. We're defending well and attacking excellently as a cohesive unit but without Robbie Keane we look toothless in front of goal. Draws against Scotland and Poland won't be good enough in the next campaign, we need to start winning these so we don't have to rely on luck which we actually had a fair bit of in the 2012 campaign.

The_Kew_Tour

I actually enjoyed that.

We were better side.

eagle eye

Wilberto wrote: »

There was no winner in that match, but there was definitely a loser. You have to feel for Montolivio who is now going to miss the World Cup.



On the match though, it was an impressive performance, albeit against a team who did not want to pick up injuries especially after they lost the aforementioned Montolivio, and also Aquilani.

Very good performances from certain players like Pilkington and Long, and even McLean when he came on, but the stand out player for me was Jeff Hendrick for his work rate. The difference between him and Glenn Whelan though is that Hendrick can actually pass a ball forward!

I'd also like to see Jonathon Walters get a decent run up front. He's a beast up there who can hold up the ball and lay it off well.

Hendrick was pretty impressive again as he has been for Derby. He needs to get to the Premier League to go to another level I think. He certainly has the ability.

Pro. F

Very happy to see the team playing like that. They looked confident, organised and motivated. I particularly liked how the midfield pressed up quickly at times to pick the Italians' pockets and how the defence had options to pass it out often enough.

Hoolahan is a class act, but Long's inability to finish is definitely an issue. Hopefully Robbie can slot in there without having to change the formation.

Hendrick had some nice touches and looked solid beside Meyler.

I'm hoping MON's long term plan is to play Wilson at left-back. Ward isn't up to it imo.

I was sceptical of O'Neill when he came in, but his team selections have been reasonable and the last two performances have really given me a lot of optimism. It looks like he's encouraging the players to use possession sensibly. Hopefully he carries on with that approach when the competitive games start.

cj maxx

What was the score lads and lassies

thelad95

cjmc wrote: »

What was the score lads and lassies

7-3 to Ireland with a John O'Shea hat-trick....


No it was actually 0-0. Decent performace from Ireland.

vidor

Decent game, that. Italy obviously taking it handy pre-World Cup but that's not to take away from the Irish performance. Pilkington probably the best of the lot and Long the most frustrating. He's emulated Keane when it comes to whinging about decisions going against him, it's a shame he didn't opt to do the same when it comes to his finishing.

lertsnim

Patser wrote: »

23000 attendence for a friendly game in a neutral venue.

Not surprising really. Big Irish and Italian numbers living in London.

dreamers75

RTE as usual have nothing about the game during it unless its on RTE.

Sad when you have to check BBC for updates.

franglan

Decent match tonight, great crowd at it probably as much Italian as Irish. Long had a difficult job tonight. It's frustrating to watch though cause as always he got on the end of long balls he had no right to get on. He had two good chances to net. Thought McGeady was decent, I know he's frustrating as he has feckin' terrific feet but lack an end product but he's was bright tonight no more than in the turkey game.

rebel girl 15

statesaver wrote: »

Huge Italian crowd there. The Irish must be out numbered.

When I was walking in I thought that as well, but I think the Irish were louder, all in the Putney end of the ground. Lot of them didn't sit down for the whole game. Lot of English accented people wearing Italians heresies as well

Paully D wrote: »

Cracking game and atmosphere for a friendly, I have to say. Very enjoyable.

It was great atmosphere, I didn't expect it to be that good. Ballotelli came out late in the second half past the Irish fans, sour out, whereas Buffon did acknowledge the crowd chanting his name. Just as the teams were going in after the game, chant of Keano went up, and the man himself went fairly shy, gave kind of a grin and walked into the tunnel

franglan

Ballotelli was signing autographs for Irish kids while warming up during the game as well as having the bants with the Lino.

Looper007

Wilberto wrote: »

Oh and, as was mentioned, Stephen Ward shouldn't be anywhere near the team but, unfortunately, his inclusion highlights just how depraved we are in the defenders department!!

Is anyone agaisn't going back to the granny rule that helped us so well under Jack's year's, going out and finding players who haven't been picked up for international football yet. I know many don't like it but I rather have a very good player who would be safe and sound then useless rubbish like Stephen Ward, Paul Green, Glenn Whelan etc.. who shouldn't be anywhere bear this squad.

Nonmonotonic

David McGoldrick, The Ipswich forward could be our striker solution. He got injured in the game that Keane went to check him out and Murphy was included in the squad instead. He is a better finisher than Long and was on fire before his knee ligament damage.

Alfa Quadrifoglio

Very enjoyable game and a very good Irish performance against a technically gifted Italian team. I thought Pilkington and Hendrick were excellent and Forde is our no 1 keeper without a doubt. Great atmosphere created by both sets of fans, more in Craven Cottage last night then in the Aviva last Sunday i suspect.
Setanta did a good job, Brian Kerr is by far the best panelist regarding the Irish team, he has depth and detail in his analysis lacking elsewhere. A disappointing aspect was the discussion on Friday night involving the "off the ball" Team on Newstalk where they basically made out that the game would be a waste of time watching, they got that very wrong on this occasion.

vidor

I've a soft spot for Kerr but I fast-forwarded through all the analysis last night so didn't get to hear what he was saying. Setanta was fine except for all the times Matt Holland said De Rossi instead of Rossi!

Lucas Hood

Only caught a bit of this game but from what I saw we played some great football. Good to see now we just need to score some more goals

Balmed Out

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Only caught a bit of this game but from what I saw we played some great football. Good to see now we just need to score some more goals

Its difficult to see where these goals will come from.

Alfa Quadrifoglio

Robbie Keane is still our best option for the moment, Long works really hard and is a decent player but lacks composure and guile that Robbie has.
When Trap was in charge I felt if we made to the World Cup we would be humiliated where I think with O'Neill we would give a good account of ourselves. The Roy Keane discussions are actually helpful because they are allowing MON to quietly work on the Team.
I am actually looking forward to the Euros and its a long time since I looked forward to watching the Irish Team.

fearrua

Only caught the second half last night, but we didn't look too bad! Couldn't believe Stephen Quinn hit the crossbar with that chance towards the end, if we had nicked a win it would've done the team a world of good.

marbless

Alfa Quadrifoglio wrote: »

Very enjoyable game and a very good Irish performance against a technically gifted Italian team. I thought Pilkington and Hendrick were excellent and Forde is our no 1 keeper without a doubt. Great atmosphere created by both sets of fans, more in Craven Cottage last night then in the Aviva last Sunday i suspect.
Setanta did a good job, Brian Kerr is by far the best panelist regarding the Irish team, he has depth and detail in his analysis lacking elsewhere. A disappointing aspect was the discussion on Friday night involving the "off the ball" Team on Newstalk where they basically made out that the game would be a waste of time watching, they got that very wrong on this occasion.

Spot on, Alfa. As friendly matches go, that was very competitive and worthwhile - I'd say Martin O'Neill learned lots from it.

hullaballoo

There was a fantastic atmosphere last night, and my impression was that the Irish fans were vastly outnumbered. I was behind the goal in the Irish side of the stadium so obviously all I could really hear was our fans but I thought we kept the Italian fans fairly quiet!

I was impressed by our midfield. I thought Meyler played very well as did Hoolihan.

We are missing the cutting edge up front abd I was frustrated by our attacking play when we were fumbling the ball around the box. On the other hand, we were stringing decent passes together when we had the ball.

Quite a few hairy messes in defence that should have been punished but Rossi looked to be off the boil after his injury.

One thing that struck me was the lack of Irish football jerseys. There were far more rugby shirts on display than you'd expect!

Great evening overall and both sets of fans were having great chats before and after the game.

Nil-nil to the boys in green was ringing out nearly all the way to Hammersmith!

miroslavklose

Looper007 wrote: »

Is anyone agaisn't going back to the granny rule that helped us so well under Jack's year's, going out and finding players who haven't been picked up for international football yet. I know many don't like it but I rather have a very good player who would be safe and sound then useless rubbish like Stephen Ward, Paul Green, Glenn Whelan etc.. who shouldn't be anywhere bear this squad.

Paul Green IS a granny rule player. We have all the granny rulers who want to play for us and several others we've approached have said no. We're not going to unearth better players than we already have.

Lennonist

Just watchin this now on Setanta. Good game for a friendly. Is Robbie Keane available for the next couple of games? Ireland might have won if he was playing with the chances we had.

In the 92nd minute the cry goes up "you'll never beat the Irish".:)

miroslavklose

Keane will be joining the squad in the US, yeah. O'Shea and Coleman are staying in England.