Updated at 00.12
THIS EVENING, IRAN came desperately close to beating Portugal and topping their group.
Had more of the contentious decisions gone their way and had Mehdi Taremi not missed a gilt-edged opportunity in the dying seconds, they would have qualified at the expense of the reigning Euro 2016 champions.
Similarly, Morocco were agonisingly close to securing an improbable victory over one of the favourites to win the World Cup, Spain.
Iago Aspas’ last-gasp goal following the officials’ consultation with VAR spared Fernando Hierro’s side’s blushes.
While Portugal and Spain progressed as expected, it could easily have been so different had the underdogs received better fortune.
Group B was incredibly tight — there was little between the teams, and every game was either drawn or decided by a single goal.
Not many people would have expected that outcome pre-tournament. Spain, player-for-player, have arguably the best squad at the World Cup, while Portugal are the reigning Euro 2016 champions.
By contrast, the one individual you could call a big name in the Morocco team — Juventus’ Medhi Benatia — was dropped tonight. Their starting XI this evening consisted of players from clubs such as Numancia, İstanbul Başakşehir, Fenerbahçe, Yeni Malatyaspor, Wolves and Al-Jazira.
Yes, they have players from Real Madrid and Ajax too, but at 19, Achraf Hakimi has seen very little game time for the La Liga outfit, while Hakim Ziyech is arguably their outstanding attacking player.
Iran, meanwhile, have a squad that features several players from the Iranian and Greek leagues and no one representing a powerhouse of football (Rubin Kazan is probably as close as it gets).
One consistent excuse for Ireland’s inept performances at international level is that ‘we don’t have the players’. Even manager Martin O’Neill regularly points out this shortcoming.
Yet Iran and Morocco among others have proven at this World Cup that you can still be competitive on the big stage despite boasting a vastly inferior set of individual players to the opposition.
There are countless complex reasons for the sometimes disappointing performances of the Irish team, which have been delved into in far more detail in article such as this one.
But not having players who represent elite European clubs should not be used as a reason to accept maulings on the international stage.
Yes, it might mean you might have to play unattractive football at times — Iran and Morocco had 27% and 25% possession respectively tonight.
But while the Boys in Green will come up against better teams, it does not necessarily mean are destined to be uncompetitive in these games .
The right organisation, gameplan and tactics, in addition to a healthy level of self-belief, as opposed to constantly talking the players down, can take even technically limited sides far at international level.
Rather than thinking the infamous 5-1 loss to Denmark last November was unavoidable or simply as a result of having bad players, the Irish team need to learn from what went wrong that night tactically and also examine in detail what has gone right for the supposed weaker sides that have enjoyed some success in Russia.
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Great idea,, much easier to walk out before the final whistle,,, à la last year…;)
@devils avacado: have you ever considered eating yourself, serious question?
It works very well on hill 16 except when the GAA over sell it . Keep the numbers right shouldn’t be a problem when social distancing regulations are relaxed
Has to be a safe option for this season anyway
Money money money
@The Irish Pain: more money where?
I suppose if the fans are standing up it’s harder for them to fall asleep watching a shite team .
@Ger Martin: great team at Anfield these days and its still ynwa for 2 mins at the start and 2 mins at the end and nothing in between. Yawn
@Ger Martin: Why do you devote so much energy into hating an English team that you have no geographical connection to?
@Mossy: relax lenny, don’t see anyone questioning your simpsons character/profile pic!
@Mossy: you know Ger personally do you ? It was a joke. Lighten up. It was of a better quality then the like of the ‘loserpool’ stuff on here. Nobody Monday a decent or semi decent joke.
@Brian Dunne: if you believe that then I guess you’re the type of fan who watches highlights on youtube and just reads the headlines to stay in the loop trying to be cool.
@King B: nah its common knowledge.
@Brian Dunne: oh right, well if that is truly the case then at least the fans are there for the last two minutes compared to other fair weather, submissive, prawn sandwich eating fans.
@King B: yeah yeah. Sorry, pool fans are the most sooper dooper fans in the world. Happy?
@Brian Dunne: not entirely, you forgot the part where you say man u fans are the worst.
@King B: correct,sorry. I forgot about that time united fans behaviour led to a European ban on all english teams. Oh wait….
@Brian Dunne: typical man u fan, always blowing on about history….
@King B: typical pool fan,try to rewrite history….
@Brian Dunne: now where did I suggest that?
Our future is positive, that’s the way I’m looking you can stay in the distant past if you’d like.
@King B: yeah the pool fans love forgetting certain things from the past when it suits them. Can’t be taking away from the “best fans in the world” image now can we?
@Brian Dunne: I wasn’t even born sham so how I could possibly remember it?
Let’s talk about the present and try and drag yourself out of the past.
your skummy fans singing songs about Hillsborough every chance they get?
Ever heard of Icj or the m58 firm?
Drug and people traffickers, armed robbers and they’re all hooligans involved in the ‘red army’. That’s what man u fans are up to today. Skum of the earth.
@King B: your lot were quite happy singing munich songs for years before Hillsborough. Some still sing about it. Robbing tickets off each other in athens. Heysel. Lovely lot.
@Brian Dunne: are you still talking about events in the past?
@King B: or we can talk about more recent behaviour like attacking opponents team busses. Throwing excrement in cups at old trafford. Damaging seats and toilets at old trafford. Lovely lot. Salt of the earth
@Brian Dunne: stuff was thrown at a bus, no fans no where have ever done that before. there’s books and newspaper articles to back up my point about your fans being criminals. Do you’ve any for your claims?
@King B: everything i mentioned was documented either online or in newspapers. Every club has a bad elememt following them. But liverpool fans like to put themselves on a pedestal and think they are better than everyone else when the truth is very different
@Brian Dunne: I googled searched and searched and found nothing to those claims. I’ve nothing better to be doing so it was a solid search.
No we don’t, just because you say we do doesn’t make it true.
Nice sly dig about Hillsborough there too, see skum.. We know the truth.
@King B: what sly dig about Hillsborough you absolute melt??
Have the local council nothing better to be doing at the moment!!??