Euro 2016 - Round of 16 - France vs Ireland, 2 pm, RTE, ITV

Beefy78

adox wrote: »

I think they may struggle against Iceland if Iceland have their sh1t together. England have really struggled to break down defensive teams.

Agreed. I'm not at all confident tomorrow but weirdly if we get through I really fancy us to beat France. We've too much pace on the counter for their defence to deal with.

Bobby Baccala

Where in Dublin is Brady from?

PeterTheEighth

Tony O'Donoghue and his "Congratulations" after them going out of the tournament. Could RTE not find another fan with a microphone to do this job?

Laois_Man

mikeym wrote: »

the French were way fitter

No

Outside their back 5, only Griezmann and Pogba started the Switzerland game...and even that was a game where neither team were arsed. The rest haven't played in 11 days. We had to give it massive effort less than 4 days ago!

funtime93

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Where in Dublin is Brady from?

Baldoyle

namloc1980

Hopefully we're set to have a good World Cup Qualifying campaign. No team in that group we should fear.

AllGunsBlazing

Beefy78 wrote: »

Agreed. I'm not at all confident tomorrow but weirdly if we get through I really fancy us to beat France. We've too much pace on the counter for their defence to deal with.

Your attacking options on the bench are a get of jail free card for Hodgson. Being able to bring on attackers blessed with pace against tiring defenders is always a potential match changer.

briany

namloc1980 wrote: »

Hopefully we're set to have a good World Cup Qualifying campaign. No team in that group we should fear.

Indeed, and I think the team will have a lot of belief. Hendrick, Brady, McClean, McCarthy, Hoolahan (if he can stick around)...Ireland actually has something resembling a decent midfield for the first time in over 10 years. It's only really in attack where I'm worried about a lack of quality.

Nabber

Laois_Man wrote: »

Outside their back 5, only Griezmann and Pogba started the Switzerland game...and even that was a game where neither team were arsed. The rest haven't played in 11 days. We had to give it massive effort less than 4 days ago!

That's why the first two games are important. Win against Sweden and Draw against Belgium would have left time to rest players. It is what it is. I would still like to see us try to retain the ball.

Mec27

They did well, France came alive, we stopped Paully paully Pogby, we stopped Payet but we couldn't stop Antoine.

Strumms

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

f**king hell .. THREE breaks since the game ended. Are RTE not getting the license fee anymore or what?

Well somone has to keep the legendary broadcaster Joe Duffy in the luxury he is accustomed to... you have to pay to keep the top talent.

Mec27

Did anyone see the distance covered stat, france ran 107, we ran 104. Athleticism matters so much at this level.

Mec27

Green Fella wrote: »

Today about 2 lads in the English lower leagues who werent even in the squad?

Byrne played in Holland last time

Headshot

Im really proud of the boys in green, what a great job they did in reaching the Euro's and getting to the knockout stage.

I hope there's going to be a big big welcome home celebration for them, with fans crowding the airport terminal, welcoming the boys home.

adox

Disappointing to hear Walters admit he wasn't fully fit.

Jimmy Iovine

Mec27 wrote: »

Did anyone see the distance covered stat, france ran 107, we ran 104. Athleticism matters so much at this level.

The vast majority of those km for Ireland were without the ball. Much harder,

Unearthly

Put up a great fight. Overall a very enjoyable qualification and tournament (except Scotland and Belgium games)

Mec27

Like I said Kante is good but no need for him against Ireland despite Giles proclomation that he is the second coming. Matuidi is probably better than him tbh and I think France will benefit from him missing in next round.

JamboMac

So sad we are out and as good as our fans where at least this time the Irish team can hold their heads high.

SlickRic

Couldn't be prouder of the lads for their commitment to the cause. Some of them were completely out on their feet at the end.

However, when it comes down to it, we simply weren't good enough.

We lost because we showed our lack of quality over 5 crazy minutes.

The first French goal was avoidable, but didn't anger me hugely. It happens. We lost the second ball after defending the first wave of attack, and got overloaded high up the pitch.

However, what happened next showed us up.

McClean makes an absolute hash of his final ball when it wasn't even difficult to pick out a Shane Long tap in. It's why McClean is never an automatic starter.

Then we're just plain naive in our setup at the back. It was reminiscent of the Belgium game all over again. Why two people went after Giroud, leaving Griezmann on his own I don't know. Amateur hour.

Then the sending off. Duffy did the right thing sacrificing himself, but we left ourselves so exposed when there was still 25 minutes left is beyond me. Just plain poor. And we got punished.

Proud though.

Lots to build on. In particular, McCarthy-Brady-Hendrick is the way forward now. No reason that shouldn't be our automatic midfield 3 for many years to come. Duffy looks a cracking prospect too.

So I'm sad, slightly annoyed, but surprisingly upbeat for the future.

Mec27

It is interesting that in none of France's previous 3 games did they overpower anyone like they did to us in those 10 minutes. We seemed to just lose our shape completely.

Green Fella

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

Tony O'Donoghue and his "Congratulations" after them going out of the tournament. Could RTE not find another fan with a microphone to do this job?

We really have a small time loser mentality at times. We will never do better if people are giving congratulations to the manager after that 2nd half and going out of the tournament. More happy to be there, taking part that counts, bolloxology.

Green Fella

Mec27 wrote: »

Byrne played in Holland last time

Blackburn on loan

Mr. Farage

Can't help but think if we'd had more time to prepare even another day and an evening game it would have made a massive difference that second half. Also a fit Walters from the start would have eaten that French backline alive. Truth be known it's heartbreaking .

Green Fella

Mr. Farage wrote: »

Can't help but think if we'd had more time to prepare even another day and an evening game it would have made a massive difference that second half. Also a fit Walters from the start would have eaten that French backline alive. Truth be known it's heartbreaking .

Remind me of 2002, we really were capable of so much more

Richard Hillman

Mec27 wrote: »

Did anyone see the distance covered stat, france ran 107, we ran 104. Athleticism matters so much at this level.

Yes but we were down to 10 men for a long period. That could be where that 3km difference is

Mec27

Shane Long from an attacking POV was very poor, you would never think France play such a high line, he is so quick but terrible movement. I know he does so much off the ball but ultimately he is a striker and I really feel he should have been more of a threat, but at same time there seemed to be no tactic to 'get him away' over the top.

Vincent Vega

If only we'd have gotten that corner....

J Mysterio

Im dissapointed we didnt get a second goal in the first half - it was there for us.

Jarrod

Still very upset so some of this may be the heart over the head but here we go:

Hendrick and Brady have been excellent and offer real hope for the future.

Disappointed over the tournament with Long, Coleman and McCarthy. These are meant to be our star men and should all be at the peak of their powers but we've played four games and they haven't influenced any of them nearly enough.

Showing 'heart' is poison for us. It excuses brain dead football. Duffy was awful today. Not good enough and should never have been in the team. Look at the Italy game again and he was poor, against a side that never really tried to win the game. His following Giroud for the second goal was inexcusable, something you'd give someone a bollocking for at under 16s level. Murphy falls into the same category. He gets in the way more than anything else, had he still been on the pitch against Italy we never would have scored. He has no idea how to move defenders or pull them out of position.

Long ran about a lot but over the four games did he really do anything? He was awfully naive against Belgium and kept giving away very soft free kicks when it was obvious that the Belgian defence would go down at the drop of a hat. Winning the peno today was very intelligent play so maybe I've jumped the gun on this one. For all that people say Keane hasn't 'got the legs' he's infinitely more intelligent than Long or Murphy.

On the positive side, Hendrick and Brady were very good. Ward surprised me in patches with some decent play. I think Keogh is a capable centre half. It's not all doom and gloom but we need to get away from putting effort and 'heart' ahead of smart football.

J Mysterio

I understand the jist but Long is invaluable for us.

jack923

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Yes but we were down to 10 men for a long period. That could be where that 3km difference is

Yeah but better than have being down 3-1 so can't really blame anything on the ten men

BorneTobyWilde

Wards shot was going in, we never even got the corner.
McClean failed with an easy pass to Murphy for a tap in
Hendrick panicked when a pass to long was on for a shot on goal
Header just wide, shot just wide

It was there for us to make it 0-2
and it was there for us to make it 2-2

derm0j073

adox wrote: »

Who are gonna get behind now? Tournament looks wide open to me. Belgium, if they get their **** together in any way shape or form, have a great chance and should make the final.

Forget about Belgium, we'll cheer for England. All together now, God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!:-)

Mec27

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Wards shot was going in, we never even got the corner.
McClean failed with an easy pass to Murphy for a tap in
Hendrick panicked when a pass to long was on for a shot on goal
Header just wide, shot just wide

It was there for us to make it 0-2
and it was there for us to make it 2-2

Its gone, its over, we can't go back in time. We have to enjoy the highs with the lows. At least we didn't go out to Iceland or Wales, that would be hard to take.

AllGunsBlazing

Harsh on Long. Has an unenviable task imo, considering the way we usually set out our stall. Looked an isolated and frustrated figure in a lot of the games.

Mr. Farage

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Wards shot was going in, we never even got the corner.
McClean failed with an easy pass to Murphy for a tap in
Hendrick panicked when a pass to long was on for a shot on goal
Header just wide, shot just wide

It was there for us to make it 0-2
and it was there for us to make it 2-2

Walters was a massive loss for us. The fact the manager put him on when he was clearly not fit tells me all I need to know about his value to us. Have him fully fit in the starting 11 and it's the hosts getting knocked out today imo.

martingriff

I am disappointed the team lost like the rest but not as bad as if we went out like is we played against belgium we played well had good tempo fissed a few chances and lost our shape a couple of times but the drive determination was there and hopefully that is something for the future

DeadHand

Mr. Farage wrote: »

Walters was a massive loss for us. The fact the manager put him on when he was clearly not fit tells me all I need to know about his value to us. Have him fully fit in the starting 11 and it's the hosts getting knocked out today imo.

Come on now.

The difference between us and France is a hell of a lot greater than Jon Walters.

AllGunsBlazing

DeadHand wrote: »

Come on now.

The difference between us and France is a hell of a lot greater than Jon Walters.

In the overall scheme of things? Yes, obviously the difference is wider than one midtable premiere league player.


But at 100% his energy and running might have been the difference in us holding onto a 1-0 lead and perhaps maybe even nicking another.

SlickRic

Criticism of Long is mental.

Luis Suarez would have enough of a struggle if he was asked to play that role in that team.

tigger123

SlickRic wrote: »

Criticism of Long is mental.

Luis Suarez would have enough of a struggle if he was asked to play that role in that team.

Long was particularly isolated in the Sweden and Belgium games. He can't do f*ck all till he gets decent service.

Agent Coulson

It's such a petty the it looks like neither Coleman or Christie can play left back at all both are god enough to start I think.

The_Kew_Tour

I can't fault the effort and a last 16 and only going down by goal ( could been more but been harsh) I am very proud.

But I think it was also a lost opportunity. I can accept 1 mistake and a few moments of genius by them. But those 2 goals and sending off were avoidable.

We showed we can play football and the short term future gives me hope. More positives then negatives that's for sure, but it ends in a "What if" or "What could have been"

Still proud and proud of the fans and being to first 2 games was special experience even if Belgium game was poor.

Canadel

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

In the overall scheme of things? Yes.


But at 100% his energy and running might have been the difference in us holding onto a 1-0 lead and perhaps maybe even nicking another.

Walters should have been on by the 60th minute for sure. France scored their second in the 62nd minute. Other than that, you can't really fault the performance or the tactics. Ireland needed luck to beat France, either by one of those chances going in, or by France missing their chances. Neither happened. Football won. France progress. And they will be a lot stronger for this game.

Grandeeod

I have to get back to doing some work. All I have to say is they did well. Didn't shame themselves. The issue about the future and where our players come from is an argument for another day. Regarding the upcoming WC qualifiers, I'd play the team that played Italy/France with the same attitude.

Iused2likebusts

Agent Coulson wrote: »

It's such a petty the it looks like neither Coleman or Christie can play left back at all both are god enough to start I think.

I think ward played well over the 3 games. Hopefully he can keep his place at Burnley next seaso as we really need to play brady in an advanced position from.now on.

DARK-KNIGHT

SlickRic wrote: »

Criticism of Long is mental.

Luis Suarez would have enough of a struggle if he was asked to play that role in that team.

Luis suarez isnt fit to lace shane longs boots :pac:

Kobe248

Deleted User wrote: »

Hoolahan showing how to hold the ball up, Should of been on earlier...

Wes lost the ball countless times trying to over do it

He was very poor today

The_Kew_Tour

Love Wes, but he was awful when he came on.