EURO 2012

This looks like a whipping in the making now.

Ireland need to cling on these next couple of mins

did drury just try to provide comfort by pointing out ireland got 3 against andorra?

Cox and Walters on. Would have preferred to see McClean.

ireland have decided to start playing again

cox close to seal-dribbling past the defender there

Clear penalty

modric

Damien Duff is looking comfortably the best Ireland player on the pitch.

niko time

Loving St Ledger's continual "BE A MAN" gesticulating at Mandzukic.

you'll need to do a follow-up on that one now LBI

― Ludo, Sunday, June 10, 2012 9:43 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I will, probably already next week ;)

beautiful stuff

Croatia look beautiful in this game but if Italy play as directly and physically as they did against Spain then they'll comfortably beat them. As will Spain.

yeah these CBs will struggle big time vs italy/spain. Think croatia will go all out vs italy next up. It'll be a cracker.

I think I just saw Deems, dressed up as a Leprechaun... :-/

He isn't dressed up

lol

Spain are quite capable of not winning against Croatia imo, though I'd fancy them against Ireland

Dunno, I've been surprised by how many opportunities ireland have created tonight. Croatia aren't that good i don't think.

Croatia aren't that good at the back.

That's a pretty shitty way to lose. I thought Ireland did mostly okay, but there's not much point when you give away goals like that.

He isn't dressed up

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, June 10, 2012 10:27 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3

Croatia are rubbish...

Trap out

So disappointed with how poorly we played. I could handle the defeat if I thought they played to their ability but few players came out of that with any credit. O'Shea, Duff and Keane were particularly poor.

Andrews was good.

Cox on for McGeady was inexplicable and had a negative effect.

We didn't even defend well. That said all three goals had elements of freakishness to them.

yeah, we were shite but we were also hard done by. I'm assuming Trap just took McClean to the tournament to merk the lot of us

They didn't look like they had the organisation to make anti-football work against the best passing sides or the players to really do anything else for long periods of a match. Duff looked the most composed but rarely saw much of the ball. Andrews can't be faulted for effort but just doesn't have the quality to do any real damage.

At this stage, i'm not sure what Trap would have to lose by just trying to fit McGeady and McClean in the same team and using pace to unsettle Italy and Spain. They're too ponderous at the moment to make long-ball football pay off.

ROI weren't too great at the back, can't put much blame on Givens like everyone in the pub was doing though. Croatia had awesome attacking strength. Dickheads in the crowd once again almost ruining a game this tourno.

I'm watching Cheers, which features an Irish bartender named "Malone"

Iniesta unplayable according to Colin Murray

Unplayable in what sense? thought he was brilliant tonight

unplayable means impossible to play/defend against.

in the parlance of our times

oh lol

i think you need to beat the game all the way through before you can unlock Iniesta and he finally becomes playable.

even putting aside my hatred of the term, i don't think you can just dole out "unplayable" in a closely fought game like that. He was very good obviously

“The pitch is a disaster,” said Fabregas. “It’s lamentable to play on a pitch like that. We deserved a lot more. It’s lamentable that we still have to play on pitches like that.”
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The Spanish insisted they had been assured the surface would be watered for more than an hour before kick-off, but questioned whether this had happened.
Although Spain eventually created enough chances to win the match, they only found a cutting edge when Torres was belatedly introduced.
Worryingly for the tournament favourites, Italy found a way to cut them open when they broke with speed, often catching the Spanish with too few defenders to cope with their attackers.
However, both Spain’s playmakers, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, also rounded on groundstaff for failing to prepare a playing surface that suited their style of play.
“The fact they didn’t water the pitch compromised us and our dynamic and fluid passing game,” said Xavi, who could not get the better of opposite number, Andrea Pirlo, for long periods. Although it rained heavily in Gdansk on Saturday afternoon, Iniesta added: “To see the pitch in this condition was a disaster. It was super dry and that makes passing the ball difficult.”

Oh diddums for poor Spain

hope st ledger tells them to be men

the pitch was crap tbf, and I think they play all 3 of their group games there so tough luck bros.

Love Xavi obviously but every time he opens his mouth it is unintentionally hilarious at the moment.

This fluid passing game sounds like something they should keep to themselves tbh

Spain really impressed me the way they stepped things up hugely after conceding. I've got so used to Barcelona refusing to deviate from the true path that I was expecting Spain to just carry on like they'd been doing, and lose. That said, I don't really know what changed - Torres brought huge (potential) benefits imo but it wasn't that I don't think, and Iniesta was superb but he'd been superb all game.

I think Navas made a difference when he came on too.

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/901623-euro-2012-tickets-on-sale-for-just-14-as-england-fans-avoid-ukraine

put off by the high cost of travel and accommodation /racial tensions and political unrest or just don't want to watch a bunch of incompetent thugs led by a weak as piss-water manager?

true, the team's never been like that before

i recall the team's been favourites to win the tournament every single tournament up until now.

Best fans in the world so long as they can combine it with a nice pleasant holiday.

cost of accomodation/travel surely off-set by 59p a pint?

wldn't piss-water be quite strong?