Euro 2016: Ireland vs Sweden 5pm KO

fyfe79

First point in the Euro finals since USSR in '88!

Korat

fyfe79 wrote: »

First point in the Euro finals since USSR in '88!

Should have won that game too.

Hazys

Our inability to hold possession and string a few passes together and resulting to hoofing the ball up the field against Sweden is scary. If we cant do it against Sweden, how are we going to do it against Belgium or Italy? Its going to be defend for 90 mins and hopefully sneak a goal against both of them.

Overall it was an opportunity lost, sitting back for 20 mins like that after playing really well all game was a disaster. Probably a fair result in the end but realistically a win there and we would have almost got us through. Now we need to draw against both Italy and Belgium or win against one of them, much harder than getting 3pts against Sweden...on the bright side, we were out of it this time 4yrs ago

wonga77

Deleted User wrote: »

Does the OG count as a shot on target for Sweden technically? Serious question

No, the record books will show they had zero shots on target

PTH2009

Can't hear any of the interviews but all the Irish lads seem like we lost

I'm was trying to think positive but looking at the players it's hard to picture them being in for the Belgium and Italy games

trashcan

Listening to Walters on RTE there he has to be a serious doubt for Belgium, and probably Italy too.

adox

Bad news about Walters. He's vital to the team IMO. Said he was struggling from a few minutes into the game.

trashcan

trashcan wrote: »

Listening to Walters on RTE there he has to be a serious doubt for Belgium, and probably Italy too.

Looks like he was rushed back. Its a huge loss because a fresh and fit Walters is huge for us.

For him personally he has created this stage. He deserves to appear on it

PTH2009

PTH2009 wrote: »

Can't hear any of the interviews but all the Irish lads seem like we lost

I'm was trying to think positive but looking at the players it's hard to picture them being in for the Belgium and Italy games

Frustration and disappointment could prove good fuel. Far better then being delighted to just being there. Perhaps Roy's influence is rubbing off positively?

Superhorse

Walters is a massive loss. Gutted for him always gives 100% and you can see he loves giving his all for his country.

Howjoe1

Is McClean the likely replacement for Walters?

JustTheOne

Hate to say it but he really shouldn't have started.

If you're not fit then give your place to someone who is.

Stinks of given in the last tournament.

Mec27

Superhorse wrote: »

In the French league. No one is questioning his ability I just questioned what he's got in the tank at this stage of his career. Hell if a Chinese side want to pay him 40m quid a year more luck to them.

You are talking as if Zlatan is showing up in some amateur hour league, its one of the biggest ****ing leagues in Europe.

armaghlad

Walters is prob my favourite player - but it's not very professional to declare yourself fit if you're not. Not saying this is the case, but if he felt it after a few minutes into the game then surely he knew beforehand he wasn't 100%... a real shame if he's out, a real star performer.

breffni bogballer

no panic over johnny,he"ll be fit for the final, COYBIG!!!

The Talking Bread

PTH2009 wrote: »

Can't hear any of the interviews but all the Irish lads seem like we lost

I'm was trying to think positive but looking at the players it's hard to picture them being in for the Belgium and Italy games

I'd say it will be the opposite. They will acknowledge that they have the attributes to take on both teams with a genuine chance after that performance. And they will review their failings in inviting that ten minutes of pressure post goal and try to alter that mindset in the next game.
Similar against Scotland when they went ahead after playing well, then allowed the Scots press them and equalise and then reverted to an attacking format.

They are clearly a strong bunch and O'Neill and Keane couldnt have more stronger mentality going into games.

It is positive in a way when a draw seems like a defeat rather than a draw in these tournaments ultimately. Shows a winning mentality.

~Rebel~

Howjoe1 wrote: »

Is McClean the likely replacement for Walters?

He is i'd say, though i'd nearly rather start Brady higher up the field, with Ward at left back.

Call Me Jimmy

Paully D wrote: »

I felt O'Neill shit his togs when we took the lead. Should have had far more courage.

How much of it was instruction and how much just a natural reaction that our players tend to do?

iroced

Straight Edge Punk wrote: »

He has nearly 30 trophies to his name, I'm sure he is very happy with his career.

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

No it doesn't.

He's won 10 league titles as the main striker on all the teams, averages over a goal every 2 games across a 15 year career 3rd highest scorer in the history of the European championships.

Mec27 wrote: »

By your logic he should dance through the Irish backline, they aren't the pinnacle of top class footballers. That Irish backfour would be a run of the mill Ligue 1 defence, probably relegation candidates tbh. Brady and Coleman are good but not as defenders.

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

People's ignorance is blinding. Goes to Juve as their main striker when Ac Millan are dominating the league. Wins two titles in a row winning best foreign player each season in a time when Italian defenses are at their strongest.

Goes to inter and wins 3 titles in a row. Scores 25 goals and is the 1st Swedish player in 50 years to win Italian golden boot and Italian player of the year.

Goes to Barcelona and scores 19 and creates 16 in his first season the same statistics people have drooled over when Bale ha his first season.

Gets moved to the right wing when messi moans to pep and messi gets moved central which leads to pep and Ibra falling out and him moving to Ac Millan.

Moves back to Ac Millan at a time when Inter have been dominating and finishes top scorer winning them the league with a goal in the final game.

Simply put he's top class.

Wow wow wow :eek:!!! Calm down the Zlatan groupies !

I did not say he's a crap player. He's an extraordinary player. His fame is overrated in my opinion. That's all.

Zlatan has created a character with all his famous/infamous quotes that in reality are just expressing his "weakness" at very top level. His teams have to play for him and at the very top level this just doesn't work. It's not enough. He vampirises the collective play. One example? PSG best game in his time there, their 2-2 away draw in Stamford Bridge 2 years ago when he just managed to get sent off. He actually changed a bit his behaviour after that game.

Now he built his career to win the most trophies he could. He always timed his transfers pretty well to go into the dominating club of their leagues (Ajax, Juve, Inter, Barça, PSG). AC Milan being some kind of an exception.
But his overall ambition lately was the Champions League and he failed there. Moved to Barça and couldn't integrate to Guardiola's play. Eto'O did the opposite transfer and accepted to play full back for a game. He won CL with Mourinho's Inter. This is the kind of players I'm comparing Zlatan with. Now if you want me to tell you he's better than Shane Long, right he's better :rolleyes:...

Clear Hearts wrote: »

I see people who know very little of football trying to judge Zlatan, I feel sorry for ye tbh.

What do you know of football?
Arrigo Sacchi & Mourinho did not have any football background before becoming some of the best ever managers the game has known.

-

@ sReq | uTeK:
You have an interesting way to look at the stats. You don't care about the context do you?
When he moved to Juve, Juve is equally as good a team as AC Milan. And Italian defenses being at their highest in the 00ies?! Really?! You should go back watching games of the 80ies/90ies.
After the Moggi scandal he goes to Juve nemesis Inter and shines in a league Inter over-dominates but always fails in CL.
Then he moves to Guardiola's Barça and has very little impact there. Of course he scored and set up goals, Barça are scoring 100+ per season! But Barça won CL the year right before and right after he played for them. Inter won CL just when he left. Just a coincidence? Or his absence allows for a better collective game?
His return to AC Milan is good but Inter were declining (it started right after Mourinho's departure, like in every club where the Portuguese went) and Juve was not back up to the top yet. So again he was brilliant in the league but disappointed in CL.
Same story with PSG.

Now if your point is he's top class. Right. Everyone can see that. But I'm going further and when I analyse his career I realise he ends up being almost as much a threat for his team than a bonus (yeah I deliberately exaggerate because he does bring domestic trophies but continental ones are a step too much for him) because the whole game goes through him and he obviously doesn't have it in him to go all the way up to the CL trophy. If Pastore & Cavani stay at PSG, I'd be very curious to see how they're gonna perform now that he left....

Dr Crayfish

First half some great stuff. Maybe we can shake up Italy or Belgium I really hope so. I hope Johnny isn't injured badly. Let's not forget the most important thing about these Euros, Scotland are at home wearing skirts

sReq | uTeK

Superhorse wrote: »

Walters is a massive loss. Gutted for him always gives 100% and you can see he loves giving his all for his country.

If McCarthy had half his conviction he'd be doing well

Mec27

Mec27 wrote: »

You are talking as if Zlatan is showing up in some amateur hour league, its one of the biggest ****ing leagues in Europe.

+1

Zlatan has won 29 trophies in Italy, Spain, Holland and France. His CV speaks for itself

Nerdlingr

First off good performance from the lads, unlucky not to be about two up at half time. As much as I want to criticise then for sitting back after taking the lead I can't be too hard. Disappointed to only get the draw in the end... But still, we're up and running and it's all too play for!...

To the game, one point to make... Robbie Keane, great servant to his country but is he dead rubber at this stage for us? Thought we should have brought on Christie on the right to take Ollson out of the game. He killed us all second half yet we did nothing about it.

Delighted for hoolahan...goes to show, even at 34 your dreams can still come through. Great goal and performance. Thought O'Shea and Hendrick were excellent too.

Now to beat the Belgians......

cj maxx

Dont know if its been mentioned but our fans are getting lauded for their gesture to the NI fan who died .
Well done

Nerdlingr

Nerdlingr wrote: »

Thought we should have brought on Christie on the right to take Ollson out of the game. He killed us all second half yet we did nothing about it.

It'd have been an experiment I'd like to have seen Christy right back and Colman kinda right mid, while Coleman wouldnt be an excellent right mid there would be a lot of pace and defensive soldiatry on the right..

Moot point mind with the formation we played

Omackeral

Mec27 wrote: »

By your logic he should dance through the Irish backline, they aren't the pinnacle of top class footballers. That Irish backfour would be a run of the mill Ligue 1 defence, probably relegation candidates tbh. Brady and Coleman are good but not as defenders.

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Please stop talking ****e.All 4 played in the Premier League this year.Coleman has been named on the premier league team of the year,O'Shea was good enough to be kept at Man Utd for 10 years.

Fairly sure the poster here was saying Ligue 1, the French top flight, rather than League One, the English 3rd tier.

Deaf student

Ireland were better now than they were under Trap in 2012. Ireland were unlucky as they should have won that match.

When R Keane came on as a sub, it was after that , Ireland started to play badly for last ten mins. Sweden was on the up with more attacks than they had in the first half.

Most of the players played well except for Mc Carthy. Re OG goal Randolph was off re his position as i was surprised to see him bit close to post. Change of goalie in the next game ? although he played well throughout the match except his off position.

I screamed at Clark re his mistakes before the OG goal. i said to my friend that if i was a manager as i would sub him instead.

Walters is a massive loss and he is a hard grafter. I liked him and Long as well.

A room for more improvement in the next game? Drop Clark and keep the rest of the team?

It's a huge indictment on Trap re Hoolahan as he should have played in 2012.

blinding

Deleted User wrote: »

Does the OG count as a shot on target for Sweden technically? Serious question

No ! Geometry:p

elefant

Deaf student wrote: »

Most of the players played well except for Mc Carthy. Re OG goal Randolph was off re his position as i was surprised to see him bit close to post. Change of goalie in the next game ?

Jesus that's hilariously harsh.

SantryRed

We should have won but we bottled it after we went ahead. Why we can't step on a team's throat and go for the jugular when we have the impetus and the momentum I'll never know. I think it's ingrained in us as a nation to be honest.

The substitutions were also poor by O'Neill. Bringing on Keane was ridiculous and completely sentimental, hoping that he could bring back the old times. He's just not good enough any more. I'm not sure he touched the ball more than twice. Disappointing result given the performance we put in, but at least we're in with a shot now. We can technically eliminate the Belgians from getting top two in the group with a win on Saturday.

batistuta9

Would 2 points be enough to qualify? Might just sneak through with it

ebbsy

Could be Belgium that miss our. Need Italy win and us to draw next games.

Mantis Toboggan

Really should have wrapped up qualification last night, tough ask now to get anything from Belgium or Italy

crkball6

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Really should have wrapped up qualification last night, tough ask now to get anything from Belgium or Italy

I don't see why, Belgium didn't look any great shakes last night against an ageing Italian side.

If we play with the same intensity as we did in the first half there's no reason why we couldn't carve out a result.

What's important is we don't relinquish control of the game so easily as we did yesterday. There was a lot of rubbish talked after the game we don't have X player in the midfield to do X,Y and Z. Horse. We did for the first 45 minutes and have the players who can pass and move to keep possession and are willing to take the ball when it was turned up yesterday.

Mantis Toboggan

Realistically we now have to go and beat either Belgium or Italy, which won't be easy.

Sad thing about the Sweden game is that they didn't have a single shot on target.

derm0j073

Disappointed with the scoreline but very happy in terms of how we played for the first hour. They went for it and were unlucky not to be going in leading at half time. If we can perform at that level over the next 2 games, we could be getting out of the group. Roll on Belgium.

helimachoptor

big opportunity to progress has been lost.

Unfortunately Ireland penchant for scoring and then sticking 11 men behind the ball cost us dearly last night.

Play well for 50 mins, create lots of chances and then score = do the exact opposite after the goal, mind boggling.

crkball6

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Realistically we now have to go and beat either Belgium or Italy, which won't be easy.

Sad thing about the Sweden game is that they didn't have a single shot on target.

We could beat Belgium, beat Italy, draw with both, win one lose one. win one draw one. we could also get through with just another draw (depending on other results)

This was never going to be easy, the chances of getting out of this group was always fairly small. But we've massively increased that not just with the point but with a really good shift that we can build off.

GavRedKing

Belgium were made to look ordinary against Italy but they also gifted them about 3 or 4 easy chances that Origi and Lukaku both should have buried.

In reality, we need to perform like we did in the first half of the Sweden game for near 90min and we've to hope that Belgium have another off day infront of goal.

Before kick off in the second game a draw didnt seem like a bad result, an opportunity dropped but a good point, now, that Italy have opened up the group, it looks like another "what if" scenario for this Irish side.

On the balance of play we were the better side.

Debil

Sweden were absolutely dire for most of the game. Ireland were able to get the better of them, and some of the Irish players were clearly unfit, or didn't show up.

Can't see Ireland beating Bel or Italy. A point could be possible, but whether that gets them over the line is another thing.

MON's substitutions were fairly poor too. If Walters wasn't fit, he shouldn't be playing. Simple as.

Debil

Brady was really wasted in the game yesterday too. Opportunity lost.

JustTheOne

Will mon go for it again or take the actions approach against Belgium?

Mantis Toboggan

Debil wrote: »

Brady was really wasted in the game yesterday too. Opportunity lost.

I thought Brady was one of our better players.

Debil

Tyson Fury wrote: »

I thought Brady was one of our better players.

Yea, I know. I mean in terms of position. He should have been moved further up once they saw how the game was going. You might replace him with somebody out of position, but Sweden weren't a threat anyway.

applehunter

Thought Sweden were very poor yesterday and yet we still couldn't beat them. How did Olssen get so much room in that 2nd half? MON should have seen this and made adjustments.

It was still one of the better performances by an Irish side recently but still too much passing back to keeper to hoof and slow set pieces.

Delighted for Hoolahan. The best player on the pitch.

GavRedKing

If Sweden had a better FB than Olsson theyed have had a field day, subsequently, if Olsson and Forsberg combined more effectively out that side we'd have been torn apart.

crkball6

Debil wrote: »

Yea, I know. I mean in terms of position. He should have been moved further up once they saw how the game was going. You might replace him with somebody out of position, but Sweden weren't a threat anyway.

I don't think so he was able to get up the left plenty especially as the space there is created organically with the diamond.

The problem was the other side of the diamond we didn't have another Brady to give ollson enough of a worry that he couldn't keep bombing down the left into the equivalent space brady was making use of on the other side.

Playing Brady at back left in that formation is fairly clever and gives you lots of different options if you want to chop and change mid game without making any subs.

We can point at any player we want for blame but ultimately collectively as a team they gave up there grip on the game without a fight and I don't know what the answer to that is because I'm sure it's not coming from MON or RK to drop off that much it's just a mentality thing and a lack of confidence it just seems bizzare they could basically go back into it as soon as they lose a goal. just keep playing the same way that got you into the position in the fist place.

Yes teams are entitled to get back into a game, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to do our thing when we're on the ball. Very frustrating.

niallo27

helimachoptor wrote: »

big opportunity to progress has been lost.

Unfortunately Ireland penchant for scoring and then sticking 11 men behind the ball cost us dearly last night.

Play well for 50 mins, create lots of chances and then score = do the exact opposite after the goal, mind boggling.

Thats football though, Sweden did the very same thing once they scored. Its only really good teams that can keep going for the kill.

Debil

crkball6 wrote: »

I don't think so he was able to get up the left plenty especially as the space there is created organically with the diamond.

The problem was the other side of the diamond we didn't have another Brady to give ollson enough of a worry that he couldn't keep bombing down the left into the equivalent space brady was making use of on the other side.

Playing Brady at back left in that formation is fairly clever and gives you lots of different options if you want to chop and change mid game without making any subs.

I'm not blaming Brady for anything, I thought we was one of our better players.

I just think he offers more in midfield, especially in a game like that. I think they could have brought on someone there to offer much the same as the opposition weren't up to much.

When Walters and Hoolahan were off, Ireland had nobody to link play, hold the ball and generally relieve pressure. I think Brady was the only player who could have provided that. With Keane up top, you needed somebody to do that.

armaghlad

Result aside (where I think a win could have been achieved) I was quite satisfied in terms of performance.

Can't really fault any of the players, McCarthy probaby could have done more and Clark was unfortunate for the og; but aside from that the players played with calmness and confidence.

While both Belgium and Italy are two formidable sides neither is unbeatable. I'd expect a Belgian backlash however; and that leaves me torn between preferring a conservative approach, or a similar set up to yesterday - the Belgian defence definitely has holes in it