Ireland v Georgia Euro Qualifier RTE 2 and SS2 7:45pm

Call Me Jimmy

yea I felt we were a little unlucky against poland.

AS others have said: Georgia at home - if ye can't win that ye don't really deserve to be at the tournament. Our players usually perform best when the pressure is on. Now that we're back in with a chance I expect a win here.

Kerrydude1981

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

Nervous myself.

Needs a thouroughly professional approach tonight, but I think a plan of keeping it tight and slowly building confidence will be the wrong way to go about it.

I'd like to see an approach of Brady getting crosses in for a front two which includes Long and getting straight at them, but I can't see O'Neill going for it.

We should be able to put Georgia to the sword, we have already been handed a second chance. If they can't grasp that with two hands and 3pts tonight they don't deserve it anyway.

An old school Ireland at home performance,fast start and put them under pressure.

CrowdedHouse

https://twitter.com/Corktod/status/640938468386959361


Given Coleman O Shea Clark Brady McCarthy Whelan Hoolahan Hendrick Walters Keane

newballsplease

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Corktod/status/640938468386959361


Given Coleman O Shea Clark Brady McCarthy Whelan Hoolahan Hendrick Walters Keane

Aah no no no... not happy with that line up at all

briany

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

An old school Ireland at home performance,fast start and put them under pressure.

Sometimes Ireland will start out with a 10 minute flurry to open the game. Up the wings, whip in a cross, the ball bounces off an opposing defender for a corner. A brisk, ovation from the crowd erupts along with a chorus of encouraging shouts. Corner taken, goalie comes out to catch. Goalie kicks it out high, ball comes down to a scrappy 50/50 that bounces out for an Irish throw. Fullback gets on the end of the throw and gives it to a winger who takes it up the line. After a stalemate at the corner flag, it takes a touch off the Irish winger and goes out for a goal kick, and we all settle in for a fairly boring 80+ minutes.

briany

newballsplease wrote: »

Aah no no no... not happy with that line up at all

Ah, Wessi's in there. Definite 3-0 coming, I think :pac:.

Looks solid enough to me, in seriousness.

Agent Coulson

Kind of scary for Irish football that we still have to rely on Given and Keane neither should be anywhere near the starting 11 really.

GLaDOS

Hendrick could be genius or a disaster. Hopefully the former.

MON seems to be trying to play ball with Hendrick, Wes and Keane starting anyway.

Nib

I'd give anything for a win tonight. Don't think I could bare watching Norn Iron, Wales, England and maybe even Scotland at the Euros while we're sitting at home.

SteelyDanJalapeno

I'm so tired of hearing that stat that we haven't beaten a team higher ranked than us in however many years, there's a reason they're ranked higher than us.

Nib

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Kind of scary for Irish football that we still have to rely on Given and Keane neither should be anywhere near the starting 11 really.

Keane is 34, not 64. He's still banging them in for club and country so why drop him? The alternatives are not good. Shane Long is hit and miss, more often miss. He's not a regular starter for Southampton either.

Agree on Given, he's not good enough anymore, he's an accident waiting to happen. Darren Randolph should have played against Gibraltar.

GLaDOS

Keane is still our most intelligent striker imo, and easily our best finisher. Unfortunately he's declined physically, which jars badly when we isolate him on his own up front. If we control the game this shouldn't be a problem. If we hoof it, we're in serous trouble.

ArmaniJeanss

TiltedBrain wrote: »

I'm so tired of hearing that stat that we've never beaten a team higher ranked than us, there's a reason they're ranked higher than us.

It also seems to hop between 'ranked ahead of us' and 'seeded ahead of us' depending on which point a poster is trying to prove.
e.g., we beat Slovakia in 2008EC qualifying when they were 3rd seeds and we were 4th, but apparently at the actual time of the game we were ahead in the FIFA rankings so it doesn't count.

rottie 11

I can't see us qualifying whether we win tonight or not. We will still need 3 points v Poland and a point off Germany at the very least

tayto lover

The longer this game stays scoreless the more confident the Georgians will get.
It is one game where we need flair and players able to take on and beat defenders. I don't have a lot of faith in Mc Geady but this is one game i'd start him as he has the ability to beat a man and put in a cross if he's on his game.
The team looks too narrow and easy to defend against.

Nalz

rottie 11 wrote: »

I can't see us qualifying whether we win tonight or not. We will still need 3 points v Poland and a point off Germany at the very least

playoffs are a realistic aim

GLaDOS

tayto lover wrote: »

The team looks too narrow and easy to defend against.

I wonder is the plan to let Coleman and Brady get forward. Certainly not much width in the midfield.

Mr.Nice Guy

McCarthy needs to step up tonight.

tayto lover

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I wonder is the plan to let Coleman and Brady get forward. Certainly not much width in the midfield.

That's probably the plan but i'd stick another guy who is able to beat a man in there too. We could be a bit slow covering their breaks if we are relying on Whelan, Mc Carthy or Hoolihan to get back quickly and our fullbacks caught upfield.

corny

Who are Gibralta?

Mr.Crinklewood

No Kilkenny references by Eamonn yet

Exclamation Marc

"Is this a must win game Martin?"

And the winner of rhetorical question of the year....

Nib

"The Czech Republic are rank, absolutely useless and they've already qualified"

Got to love Dunphy.

jamesbere

Mr.Crinklewood wrote: »

No Kilkenny references by Eamonn yet

Wait, it's a long evening. Brian cody will be next Ireland manager

Exclamation Marc

On a side note, new Apres Match programme starting after the game.

Looking forward to that!

Andersonisgod

Interesting that Eamonn has jumped on the "if Iceland can do it why can't we" bandwagon when that example flies in the face of one of his other theories (that overcoaching harms the development of players) when many put the recent success of Iceland down to their incredibly high percentage of coaches.

Diabhal Beag

Fun-Fact: If the Republic of Irlande win tonight it'll be their first win over a higher ranked side since the Stegosaurus roamed the Earth.

LuckyLloyd

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Kind of scary for Irish football that we still have to rely on Given and Keane neither should be anywhere near the starting 11 really.

Near the starting XI of a functioning Irish team? No. Near the starting XI of this Irish team? Probably.

GreNoLi

4-2.

CrowdedHouse

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

Fun-Fact: If the Republic of Irlande win tonight it'll be their first win over a higher ranked side since the Stegosaurus roamed the Earth.

Shur they're ranked even lower than us

p1akuw47h5r3it

Is anyone streaming this on RTE player and if so does your stream keep dropping?

GreNoLi

DanDan6592 wrote: »

Is anyone streaming this on RTE player and if so does your stream keep dropping?

Usual shenanigans, streaming it at 512k myself.

ctrl-alt-delete

Getting the ball to Hoolahan is going to have to come by bypassing Whelan and McCarthy and using Brady and Coleman, probably for the best.

tayto lover

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Shur they're ranked even lower than us

147

SteelyDanJalapeno

Jon Walters interviewing was quite refreshing and honest.

Nib

I was a huge fan of Jon Walters, even more so after that interview. Seems like a great guy.

Kermit.de.frog

All geared up for another horrible night in Irish football.

Agent Coulson

Why is Wes, Wes in the Irish media and not Hoolahan what makes him different to every other footballer that the media use his first name.

Mr.Nice Guy

What did Walters say?

IncognitoMan

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Interesting that Eamonn has jumped on the "if Iceland can do it why can't we" bandwagon when that example flies in the face of one of his other theories (that overcoaching harms the development of players) when many put the recent success of Iceland down to their incredibly high percentage of coaches.

I'd bet a large amount Dunphy hasn't a clue why Iceland are top of their group. He just seen a small team do well and made the easy connection

Nib

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

All geared up for another horrible night in Irish football.

That's the spirit. :rolleyes:

Blatter

I'm still laughing at Dunphy highlighting the James McClean tackle v Poland as a means of approaching the game tonight.

Yeah, lets get reduced to 10 men early on - that'll work!

Agent Coulson

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What did Walters say?

That he is very privileged to be a footballer and contracts don't mean anything really when kids are dying trying to get to start a new life in Greece as we saw last week.

Subcomandante Marcos

COYBIB!

Mushy

Blatter wrote: »

I'm still laughing at Dunphy highlighting the James McClean tackle v Poland as a means of approaching the game tonight.

Yeah, lets get reduced to 10 men early on - that'll work!

You mean the one that was a perfect tackle?

SteelyDanJalapeno

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What did Walters say?

They were asking him bout the contract BS last week, he referred to whats going on in Syria and said he know's how lucky he is to be playing football and doesnt care where.

tayto lover

Not confident.
Don't like team selection.
Hoping for a win but thinking draw.

Andersonisgod

IncognitoMan wrote: »

I'd bet a large amount Dunphy hasn't a clue why Iceland are top of their group. He just seen a small team do well and made the easy connection

Haha I've no doubt that's true but then he has seen Georgia play 3(!) times so we probably shouldn't doubt RTE's resident European football "expert"

LowOdour

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What did Walters say?

He was putting soccer, notably the recent transfer rumours about him into perspective with all the talk about the refugee crisis in the news the last week.

Yillan

TiltedBrain wrote: »

They were asking him bout the contract BS last week, he referred to whats going on in Syria and said he know's how lucky he is to be playing football and doesnt care where.

As long as it's for loads and loads of money