Ben Blake reports from Parc Olympique Lyonnais
1. Sticking with a winning team
AFTER THAT SPECIAL night in Lille, there was a lot of talk about whether Martin O’Neill would name an unchanged side to face France in the knockout stages.
Stephen Ward was the major injury worry going into tie, but the full-back was deemed fit enough to play as the same starting XI lined out.
It looked the right call as the Boys in Green took a second-minute lead and matched their opponents in every department during a promising first half.
However, the effort put in on Wednesday told after the break and those tired bodies were picked apart as the hosts scored twice in the space of three minutes, then Shane Duffy was shown a straight red card for chopping down Antoine Griezmann.
John O’Shea came into the backline after the sending off, while Jon Walters and Wes Hoolahan were thrown on to find an equaliser — but France’s extra man was evident.
2. The perfect start for Ireland
Even the most optimistic of Irish supporter would not have predicted the events of opening minutes.
Shane Long invited the challenge from Paul Pogba and the Juventus midfielder obliged — bringing him down inside the box. Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli pointed to the spot and Robbie Brady, the hero against Italy, placed his spot-kick past Hugo Lloris via the post.
It felt like an unforgettable moment but when Ireland didn’t add a second to their early goal, they were always going to give France ample time to stage a comeback and, sure enough, it came just before the hour mark.
3. Griezmann steps up to the plate
While Pogba and Griezmann appeared to be in a straight shootout to cement their status as the poster boy of this French team pre-tournament, it was Dimitri Payet who threw his hat into the ring during the group stages.
And although Pogba showed some incredible touches throughout today’s game, Atletico Madrid attacker Griezmann, with one goal to his name prior to today, stole the show and the man-of-the-match award with a three-minute brace.
The finishes — a 12-yard header from Bacary Sagna’s cross and a cool finish past Randolph after Olivier Giroud’s knock-down — were quite different in style, but equally as clinical.
4. Duffy sees red and hands France the advantage
Named once again at the heart of Ireland’s defence, it looked, for the first 55 minutes at lease, like Shane Duffy was going to provide another accomplished display However, a lack of communication between him and defensive partner Richard Keogh led to France’s second goal.
And just minutes later, the 24-year-old was off for an early bath. Ireland’s defence was left completely exposed when Giroud played Griezmann in on goal. And he looked favourite to complete his hat-trick when Duffy threw himself at his opponent and took the man instead of the ball with a desperate, last-ditch tackle.
A reckless challenge, but uou have to feel some sympathy for the big defender as he really had little alternative but to bring him down.
5. Valiant effort bodes well for the short-term future
Martin O’Neill expressed enormous pride in how his players performed today and, after a hiccup along the way, Ireland can exit the tournament with their heads held high.
We were playing a real fine team in France, possibly the tournament favourites, and we really had a go,” he said, during his post-match press conference.
Despite the gulf in class, they stood toe-to-toe with Les Bleus for the guts of an hour and fans will maybe be left feeling what could have been.
Unlike four years ago, however, there should be a sense of positivity about how the past fortnight has unfolded. Belgium performance aside, this group of players proved on the international stage that they can mix it with some of the best.
Inevitably, there will be international retirements in the coming weeks and months — Robbie Keane and Shay Given appeared to wave goodbye to fans after the final whistle.
Heading into the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, the likes of Darren Randolph, Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy and Shane Long should provide the spine of the team.
Doesn’t matter lads my kids are out the back. One of them is pretending to be Hendrick and the other Brady. That’s what it’s all about the next generation are inspired. Roll on the World Cup
Super comment Tweed. Go out to the kids & pretend to be Martin O Neil.
Never a truer word said …The only difference between us and them is we had the Italia 90 sticker album :)
Comment on the week in my eyes Tweed. Fair fecks.
And kids playing football on the streets is very important
I pretended to be David Beckham for a while, but at 59 my neighbours threatened to send for the men with the straightjackets and have be locked up if I didn’t cop on.
I grew up with Robbie Brady and remember pretending to be Duff, Keane, etc. – you never know!
Great 45 minutes. We were either tired of just not awake for the second half. Bright future though. Brady is too good of a player to have in the championship also.
As long as he doesn’t join another relegation certs
45 mins is not enough. And professionals should not have the excuse for being tired!
Great is Leicester went for him
The French lads had a 3 day extra advantage on since the last game (which is odd in any major finals in itself). I’m not using that as any excuse but to me it was a factor in the 2nd half. Griezeman showing why he’s world class didn’t help either of course.
Tired me arse. The back four Martin changed to for Italy was never seriously challenged for that game. For such an experienced manager to leave those four in place for today was a major mistake. And a touch of believing his own hype perhaps like for the Belgium game. The first 45 mins was the best I have seen an Irish team team ever – superb – but the defence wasn’t really challenged. 15 mins later – they were destroyed (and lets be honest and forget the glorious defeat stuff Keane rallied against over the years).
O’Shea would have added huge experience today. Both goals were bad bad defending. The pressure told. After 55 mins O’Neill should have taken one if the centre backs off or Ward – and sent some experience in there. All in all – a good tournament but O’Neill & Keane imho were found wanting when the going got tough
I hope I am nut being unfair but…..
No you’re right. We should’ve made changes and it was clear they were needed looking at the second goal but too late then.
Lavbeer, to be honest, whatever :-) It’s easy to have an opinion but we made it hard for a better team to beat us and sure they’re probably giving out too that it was so difficult. What-ifs, buts and maybe’s … I like this team and I like what they have done. They’ll surely with this management team have taken a lot from it and the future is optimistic.
I questioned him leaving Duffy in at O’Shea’s expense, and think he got it wrong (hindsight is wonderful and all that), but in reality, the selection was pretty much bang on
David Thomas I totally agree they are well paid to get fit, they have access to personal trainers, all the physio’s they want. All they have to do is kick a ball how hard is that. There are kids & parents in every town in Ireland doing this for NO PAY. If they are not fit & get tired after playing football for approx 90 min every few days then get another job. Give someone else a chance that can kick a ball for 90 min every few days without getting tired. Now lets all the red clicks start clicking.
I wish someone would shoot Dunphy. His latest scapegoat is Shane Duffy. He’ll be on his case for the next 2 years
And suddenly John o shea is a massive player!
Two centre backs going for the same ball is inexcusable at this level
No Jimmy but he has been in these situations much more than 2 young lads who did well bu no leadership at all. The winning goal was comical defending. i blame the manager thought who leaft a leader on the bench. He changed the team drastically for the italy game but didn’t tweak for this game. Lots of positives. The team lost to a better team but the goals were bad. But O’Neill made a rod for his own back.
O’Neill is getting off lightly here again today. He played for a 1-0 win from the 2nd minute. It was clear as day from early in the first half that we were getting tanked in midfield and defending so deep. The way he set us up to play sapped the players energy as chasing after French players with technique on the ball wore us down. We were lucky to lose 2-1 as they tore us apart again & again, especially down Wards side of the pitch. The win against was hugely emotional but it was back to reality today with a bang.
even O’Shea @ LB might have made a difference. Ward played a handful of this season – he wasn’t up to that pace. Did the last 5 goals we conceded come down that side?
Did any of ye ever play football lads? Dunphy prefers controversy, that’s how telly works. France have far more talent than we have, were much fresher, and had a ‘home’ game. And we still made them sweat for it and even threatened them at times. There are many reasons to be optimistic for world cup qualification matches.
Well done guys. Be proud
Well done lads everyone from the managers, the players and the supporters were fantastic. You all represented Ireland fabulously. We don’t make it easy to get into these championships, but when we do we definitely leave our mark. Congrats to the team.
I think we ten out of steam, pure and simple. The three day turnaround was a massive disadvantage.. Having said that, France could go on to win it, and we ran them close. I’m proud of them, even tho, right now, I’m massively disappointed.
I dont want to sound cringe or anything but I dont have words to describe how proud I am of the team, to go through all we did not just the Belgium game but all the qualifiers from that dramatic win in Georgia to the draw with Scotland we went through a lot but we came out of it good and went into the last 16 against on paper one of the top 3 teams in the tournament and gave them a good game and played some good football in the process, no shame at all with a last 16 exit and its all about getting back on the horse and be ready for Sebria in September!
Great effort by Ireland, we ran out of steam in the 2nd, sending off was fair but ultimately the last straw for an already tired team. Going forward there are great positives to be taken, if we believe, we can mix it with Europe’s best. Brady Hendrick Duffy Coleman long Randolph mc Carthy, certainly the future for Irish football is bright.
Yes, and I think young Jack Byrne could be a very interesting option for us in the near future.
Hendrick has been excellent for last few months. Derby Co need promotion or he needs out – but he did well. Why was he booked?
Did he kick the ball away perhaps?
Kicked the ball away when Pogba gave him the dead leg. Ref obviously thought he was time wasting. Harsh I thought
Stand up for the boys in green……
should’ve been our corner
The better team won on the day. We had a good 45 minutes but they just had that extra quality in the end.
The referee went in at half time and came out for the second half with a french shirt on
Sorry I can’t agree with that. Ref was fair.
Agreed
The ref was superb today
Bar that obvious corner, I agree. Good game, and I was worried about home team decisions.
We had one or two go our way too. Good ref. No complants.
Silly comment, Ref had a good day.
except for not awarding a corner just before the French scored. – I think France still would have won, but it’s nice to dream
ref let a few hard tackles go for both sides …… and he let the game flow …. and he gave a penalty against the home tea in the first minute ….a man with a balls !!!! Top ref. Wasn’t sure why he booked Hendrick though
Here here!
Let’s not stop the party until we welcome the boys in green home #COYBIG
Big improvement on 2012 euros, well done lads, head’s held high.
How about our few (!) Fans. Was that fair?
No but that didn’t loose us the game. We made some schoolboy errors particularly the second goal. No gripes France were better but we did brilliant.
Loose us the game – now that’s a schoolboy error.
Fair play it’s great that there’s always clowns available to point out a spelling error.
“We made some schoolboy errors” … “but we did brilliant” ….. ffs
In the overall context of getting out of a difficult group is what I was referring to as doing brilliantly.
Fair enough Neil. And I recognise and enjoyed that progress. But when the going got tough today …..
Very proud of them. Yes there were some mistakes but I’m not going to crucify them for it.
This is what Roy Keane talks about. No point having the best supporters in the world if the team can’t match it! But let’s clap ourselves on the back until the next party!
Exactly David, In truth our team was one of the worst at the Euros. Our defending was comically bad in 3 games, not one of our strikers had a shot on target nevermind score a goal. Our midfield was overrun by Sweden,Belgium & France in the 2nd half of each game. Our keeper had the best tournament of the lot.
Cannot fault the effort but sadly like Tardelli said we don’t have the intellectual side to our game. We played for a 1-0 win from the 2nd minute when we gat the penalty. Wasting time from that moment on was going to come back and bite us in the ass also. Our midfield was crap today, McCarthy had a good first half but again went to sleep for their first goal. The win against Italy only papered over the cracks in Irish Football. To defend so deep and invite the French on every time was madness, we gave away the ball so many times in every position. Coleman is brutal going forward in fact the whole team is!! Murphy had a good game as did Randolph but the rest were average at best. There is no player apart from Hoolihan who has a football brain.
Overall a good performance by the Irish team, but today Ireland were beaten by a French team with much more class and pace.
Great effort, some brilliant saves and they sadly just ran out of steam. Pity they couldn’t have kept the ball on the ground and in a control a bit more, there was a lot of loose play and a reversion to the primitive stuff. But they have provided us with great entertainment oer the days. The Italy game was a gem. Germans look best now
We don’t have many regularly playing premier footballers on the team apart from a few some of who were injured before the tournament. I think the team played well in the first half they went out of steam in the second half. Much better players years ago when we had a chance of winning the tournament.