WATERFORD’S CRAIG BREEN has become the first driver from the Republic of Ireland to secure a works seat in the World Rally Championship after signing a two-year deal with Citroen Racing starting next season.
Breen, 26, and British co-driver Scott Martin will join Tyrone driver Kris Meeke and his Kerry co-driver Paul Nagle, and French driver Stephane Lefebvre and co-driver Gabin Moreau, as part of Citroen’s line-up.
Breen has claimed top-10 finishes in his four WRC races for Citroen this year which included a maiden podium finish in Finland with third position and a fifth place result in Corsica last weekend. And the hard work has clearly paid off in the Citroen DS 3.
“I’m so excited to tell you all that Scott and I will be driving for Citroen Racing in the WRC for the next two years,” a delighted Breen, the son of former Irish champion Ray, said.
“This is the stuff that dreams are made of, thank you so much to everybody who has made this possible!”
Yves Matton, the team principal of Citroen Racing, is a big fan of the pair.
“They have the natural talent, motivation and work ethic to win rallies,” he said of Breen and Lefebvre.
“I would also say we are proud to take these young drivers up to the top level of the sport.”
The French manufacturers are returning to full-factory status in the WRC next year and it is expected that Breen and Lefebvre will initially rotate the drive on the second car with the team to use a three-car selection “as soon as possible”.
Breen will be in action for Citroen again this weekend at Rally Catalunya no doubt buoyed by his new deal.
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We’ve reverted to playing long ball football – what else is there to say. No other team in Europe plays with these tactics.
the problem we have is that we have a old fashioned manager, similar to Trap, who hasn’t embraced modern football tactics yet and still believes in 4-4-2, one big striker one small striker, style of play. He’s played like this at nearly every club he’s been at…Carew/Agbonlahor at Villa, Sutton/Larsson at Celtic, etc…
Doesn’t matter if he had 4 Xavi’s in our team….we’d still be playing long balls
Don’t think you can compare O’Neill to Trap. I don’t think he’s old fashioned either or tactically unaware. I just think he got the tactics very wrong.
Or else the players got it wrong.
McGeady and Hoolahan and Keogh kept the ball on the deck.
They were hardly told to keep it on the deck while the rest hoofed it. Brady tried to keep it on the deck but just played badly. Midfielders didn’t want it it seemed. And when they did get it they ran into trouble or else just passed it back to Randolph for a big hoof ball
How about we’re not very good?.
Did he used to play a 3-5-2 at Celtic!
A team that’s not very good wouldn’t beat the world champions,our players aren’t being utilised properly,Coleman and Brady should be used further up the pitch just like Alaba is for Austria.Biggest problem is not playing players that can hang onto the ball,although none of the following were deemed fit for the Poland game,Gibson,Arter,Hoolahan and Stephen Quinn can all hang onto the ball and play it around but O’neill for whatever reason is still persisting with Whelan and Hendrick who have very little composure on the ball,McCarthy strengths lie with his holding rather than his passing so let him sit behind better ball players.
@Fiach
Wasn’t the biggest fan of Trap either when he coached the Boys In green but O’Neill could coach for the next hundred years and he still wouldn’t achieve half of what Trap has achieved in his career! True, his time was over when he came to Ireland but he still qualified for a big tournament with a squad that wasn’t any better than O’Neill’s squad is! The main problem is that we don’t have good enough players anymore. Plain and simple!
@Nick
Nonsense! In modern football any team can beat any team on their day!
Greece won the bleeding cup and they were NOT a very good team!
Not saying we have a terrible team either but we just don’t have the consistency and the players at the moment!
The Germany match was great but also a bit lucky. And the Poland match was an overall horrible performance , no creativity, not-the right tactics no nothing!
Still hopeful for the playoffs , though, all of them are doable.
What u on about nonsense?im saying that it’s unfair to say we’r not very good which is a fair statement having beaten the world champions,on our day or not.
@Nick
We can agree that we were very good against the Germans but it doesn’t make us a very good team overall!
We are a mediocre team with mediocre players but capable on the day!
Well we’r certainly not a bad team.We’v consistently put away the lesser teams the past few campaigns and haven’t really lost to anyone we shouldn’t have lost to.Inconsistent,bland and unfulfilling YES but bad?certainly not.
We were mediocre against a German side who were/are not performing anywhere near their full potential but yet were still miles better than Ireland, the result and subsequent hysteria that followed masked yet another poor performance from a mediocre outfit.
@Matt Trap got us to the Euros through a playoff. O’Neill may very well soon do the same. And he hasn’t banished any players to the wilderness in the process.
And I guarantee, if we do make it, we won’t concede 9 goals in three games
I truly believe..that Glenn Whelan has such a negative effect on James McCarthy when he plays beside him!!! Anytime Jimmy Mac has played without Whelan, he has looked at different player!! Including last Thursday night.
Glenn Whelan, along with some others to be fair, performance at the Euro Finals 2012 was pathetic..why would next year be any different? Time to ditch him..no more excuses
Nigel spot on, I think they both have a negative effect on each other though,both are holding midfielders who should be playing at the base of midfield beside a passer rather than in a pair.Whelans passing is atrocious but he breaks up the play well,I do think mccarthy plays the role better as he demonstrated against the Germans,He certainly didn’t miss Whelan I’m that game.
Definitely agree Nick. McCarthys positioning in cutting out passes,crosses and closing German space down was top notch last Thursday night.
Hendrick had the legs,beside him, to get up and down and round the pitch and then Wes ,just ahead of them was the link and play maker when he could get on the ball. Now theres a far better balanced midfield triangle….having Whelan in there adds nothing and ruins that balance!!
What annoys me is the way the media/people say the players must be under instruction to lump it long, that’s rubbish, Why then for instance when Wes and McGeady come on do they look for shorter balls to feet – because they have to skill and attitude to control it in tight situations and not lose the ball. Why does McCarthy not have the confidence or ability to that? Strange
Well said. McGeady will always have a go at beating a man. Often too many times. Hendrick, McCarthy and Whelan didn’t seem to want the ball. Certainly didn’t demand it
We are 3rd highest team in term of long balls played in the qualifiers. that says it all.
Just bad management! Plain and simple. Afraid to play. It was an ending to the group like the 6 nations ended. Should have played the kitchen sink up front
We had nothing to lose. We were more then likely going to concede so 2 goals was probably going to be a must.
Usual negative tactics, afraid to open up. Poland showed their hand in the 2nd half in Dublin, once you go at them they panic albeit they are probably a better side, at that they just about managed to beat us at home ala similar to Scotland away. Should have gone hell for leather. We have the wrong O’Neil at the helm.
Lack of quality players
Look at our Northern neighbours top of the group with a bunch of very average players playing decent football ,we can’t get the basic stuff like retaining possession or passing or creating goal scoring opportunities ,we had one chance against the Germans one or two against Poland ,The manager is useless and should be sacked after the play off regardless of the outcome along with the instigator of all this John Delaney who selected all these negative washed up unwanted managers ,I’d be keeping Brendan Rodgers on speed dial the guy is good at getting the most out of average players ,just ask Swansea .
Whelans best position is on the couch at home watching the tv, I’m sure he is more productive there. Useless is too nice a word to describe his footballing skills
We were s*it really and got lucky playing Germany and winning that game . Ah well at least the rugby team are great .
Alot of people in ireland in denial by the thumbs down i got .
Whelan and McCarthy are real problems. Whelan just fills space, McCarthy who is supposed to link the play never wants the ball which means the defence has no option but to go long . As for leaving Hoolahan out in a must win game and moving Brady to left back is just plain negative. With that team out in the playoffs any team has a chance against us
Hoolahan told manager he wasn’t fit to start
last week o’neill was the best thing since sliced bread. one loss later and he is negative in his approach and playing the wrong tactics according to the armchair pundits and the commenters here. the fact is he is probably getting the best out of what is a very poor pool of players. face up to the fact that we are very limited and pick a team to support in the euros next year coz we wont and dont deserve to qualify.
The responsibility lies solely with O’Neill and Keane, defunct tactics and a total lack of confidence in the team. O’Neill comes out in press conferences and says ‘we need to be more daring’ and ‘more creative’ and goes and picks defensive players and then claims we can’t play football, pull the other one. The Euro’s will be another white-wash if we get there and I can’t watch anymore of this type of football so for our own good and the good of our game it would be best not to qualify, rebuild and get rid of management team. Either that or go to Euro’s everybody gets pissed, have a sing-song and get beat in every game.
We should be bringing players like Harry Arter, Stephen Quinn, Anthony pilkington more into the squad. also we should give cillian Sheridan
a call as well as Adam Rooney. Him and long upfront or Murphy would be better options. Keane is way past it as well as Whelan. Hopefully Clarke is back from injury.
Don’t know if you heard but we beat the world champions last week.
robert preston. a man who speaks the truth. a few more like him round here would be refreshing.
We have an obsession with the team not passing enough in midfield.
This discussion barely mentioned our supposed man of the match Seamus Coleman who made one run to the opposition byline in the whole 90 minutes. This figure needs to be at least five every game.
He got motm for keeping grosnicki quiet who looked useless anyway and for making a good covering tackle on lewy.
We have to get more attacking from Coleman. It will give us variety & goals.
This obsession with playing keep ball in the middle is BS. Krychowiak would have eaten all our midfielders alive. He handles busquets & Kroos in his club career. A few lads playing for Derby & Norwich won’t worry him.