Giovanni Trapattoni names Ireland side to face Croatia
Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has named an unchanged starting eleven for the opening Euro 2012 game with Croatia.
Shay Given has been passed fit after a full workout in Friday’s training session in Gdynia. As a result, the same team that started the friendly with Hungary in Budapest will take to the pitch in Poznan on Sunday at 19.45 Irish time.
Kevin Doyle will start up front alongside captain Robbie Keane despite strong performances from Shane Long and Jonathan Walters in Ireland’s warm-up friendlies.
At yesterday’s press conference, Trapattoni was asked was there less pressure on him this time as Ireland manager than when he managed Italy at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. “It’s true what you say,” Trapattoni said, “but just getting here is not enough. There isn’t a result that satisfies me as I am never happy unless I get the ultimate prize. In my life as player I was lucky to play against the most important opponents — stars like Pele, Eusebio, Cruyff. Direct confrontations, even though I was not superior to them. But that is football. If I don’t achieve what I think I can achieve, I am not happy.
“Maybe we don’t have a Messi, but we have very good quality and we must believe in that quality. We have good attitude and the right balance. To Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady this morning, I said congratulations, because I saw again their determination to win back the ball. We have to spend all our energy in Sunday’s game and then it will be my duty to see if I can rest players for 15 minutes because they will have to repeat this again after three days.
“I don’t think we could be better prepared. My worry one month ago was that we would lose a player. I prayed that we would have no injury. That is the reason I asked some players to come in four days early. I knew there was two or three little injury problem but they recovered well — John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger. I’ve no doubt now about Shay Given.
“I’m not particularly excited but I’m a little tense. I want to keep that level of tension. The manager needs to keep a positive tension. I think I’m like a 20 year old, but with more experience. If I was 15 years younger I would play in the game.”
Ireland team v Croatia:
Shay Given; John O’Shea, Richard Dunne Sean St. Ledger, Stephen Ward; Damien Duff, Keith Andrews, Glenn Whelan, Aiden McGeady; Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle.
Republic of Ireland v Croatia kick-off is at 7.45 pm Irish time, and can be seen live on RTÉ 2.
Related posts:
What should happen. Gibson, McClean and Long off the bench.
What will happen. Green, Hunt and Walters off the bench.
ok guys. this is it, we’re not on this website for any other reason than we love irish football. so lets support our team throughout.
propagandhi, IrishRI, Fionn, andy kelly, Paul, Trent Hill are all names i see repeatedly on this website and we all want ireland to do well, so lets give then all the support they need regardless of who’s playing and what the tactics are.
“What should happen. Gibson, McClean and Long off the bench.”
Yes.
Im all for the bhoys and I try not to talk negatively. Im very pro-Trap.
I think if were losing 1-0 we’ll deffinetly see mclean, trap and tardelli have acknowledged his potential already so i expect him to see some game time. In a 0-1 or 0-0 situation You must think trap will give shane a go before walters though. Long certainly has had a nack for gettin goals of the bench for us in the friendlies. I think green hunt walters are probably more likely to see time if were protecting a 1-0 lead.
Also, I agree with what mike said. Were all here because we love irish football and since everyone has been waitin for this for a while (10 years!) lets enjoy for now and discuss any miscalculations afterwards
Come on Ireland! I have literally been dreaming about this game for the last two nights.
You know despite my worst fears this line up isn’t that bad (except McClean, Long and Gibson should all be starting if you ask me)
Does anyone know who the subs are for the game?????
All the same COME ON IRELAND!!!!!
I’d also much rather see O’Shea and Dunne as centre halves and Kelly at right back
Subs are any from the other players, which is good news as it all depends on how the game is going.
Well here it is at last. I’m bricking it already, stomach will be in knots by this afternoon. This is why we love it though, right? Can’t say I’m overflowing with confidence, just really hoping that we avoid defeat to keep some realistic hope of progression from the group alive. No underestimating the scale of the challenge ahead of the lads over the next week. This is the big prize for long-time servants of the team like Dunne, Given, Keane, Duff & O’Shea (and also an opportunity for the honest hardworking journeymen of the squad to write their name in history), I hope they all make the most of it and we get some glorious moments to remember.
I’m happy with the lineup. I’d probably have preferred someone else instead of Doyle up front, but we’ve all seen that Kevin Doyle can produce the goods. So there’s no reason he can’t do it on the big stage.
3-0 to Ireland? We can always dream.
Doyle has a thankless job and he does well bringing others in to play, at his own expense. This is largely the same as Walters. If you want to score a goal as opposed to bringing on another player who is even worse at scoring and bringing others in to play, bring on Long.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/euro-2012/other-news/euro-2012-modric-to-pull-strings-but-defence-is-croatias-weak-link-3133696.html
In Budapest, Bilic’s main scout, Gordon Cipric, expressed his admiration for Shane Long. “Walters is a good player, but I think Long is better. He’s strong, good in the air which is important because Ireland play long balls.”
Another one of Whelan’s brainfarts costing us. I sincerely hope he is out of the team come September. What is the point of having someone like him in a 2 man defensive midfield when he is always falling asleep and is completely useless at tracking players runs? He’s singularly been at fault for goals conceded in at least 4 matches over the last 2 years.
I know Whelan would be disappointed if he was dropped but he has done next to nothing to hold down that place in the team and earn it. Noone else would miss him if he goes. Andrews doing one of his vanishing acts as well. He can piss right off too.
Bring on McClean and Long and tell that useless fathead Walters to stay on the bench.
When we go out of this group with our tails between our legs, hopefully people will begin to understand my pleas for Hoolahan, Ireland, Andy Reid and McCarthy to be in this team.
Setpieces are our only hope of scoring. That’s all Italy and Spain will have to worry about. No creativity, no poise in midfield. It’s a joke!
Fuming.
Walters and Cox on. Long on the bench, despite scoring against Boosnia and despite being the leading Irish scorer in the Premier League. McGeady off. McClean left off the bench. Walters on ahead of Long. Cox on ahead of McClean and Hunt.
It’s a joke and Ireland deserve to go out.
Fucking furious.
Stuck with Trapattoni for another two years. Hoolahan, Andy Reid, McCann and Hendrick will be ignored. Coleman, McCarthy and McClean will be peripheral figures. Walters and Cox ahead of Long in the pecking order, even though Walters can’t score and Cox can’t get near the very team Long plays for.
Whelan and Andrews will continue their disappearing act in midfield. Green will continue to get called up.
We will contine to cede possession and dominance to teams like Austria, Armenia and Macedonia.
All this and we have Germany to worry about…
Depressing stuff.
Stonewall penalty turned down. All the decisions going against us. Typical luck of the Irish.
aaaannnnnnddd depression sets in..
Absolute shite….Trapps not exactly a strategic genius. Wrong tactics, wrong line up, wrong substitutions (except long). We’re not out of it yet but on that performance alone we deserve to be. Yes we had some bad decisions against us but overall we deserved to lose 10-1.
Cox on for McGeady. Walters on before Long. Cox on ahead of McClean. Hunt on the bench. Gibson on the bench.
O’Shea and Ward shown up. O’Shea should be at cb. He is no rb. Kelly should be rb and Wilson should be lb. This is on merit.
We should be more tactically flexible but Trapattoni doesn’t have a clue about anything other than defending in a 4-4-2.
Stuck with this buffoon for another two years. Sickened.
We were poor, Croatia were good and we had terrible luck.
-O’Shea cannot pass or cross. He is no right back. Woeful distribution.
-Ironically, we weren’t conspicuously overrun in midfield. They were just better than us across the park. Andrews and Whelan played well.
-Doyle doesn’t have enough of an impact the justify his place.
-Not only do we play the same way in every game, we have even started scoring the same goals. St Ledger’s header was a carbon copy of his goal against Italy in 2010.
Gutted. Let’s open up and at least try to leave a mark on this tournament.
Gutted…
deserved to lose, didn’t look like scoring, always looked like conceding, Croatia are pretty ordinary but we made them look better than they are.
We were very easy to beat today and i don’t think it was all the players fault, i think it had more to do with tactics (or lack there of) I really think we qualified for the finals with a lot of luck on our side and now that the luck has run out we’re getting embarrassed.
Fact – of all the qualified teams, Ireland have had more shots on target on their goal than any other team (45) during qualifiers.
They were very soft goals to concede and it looked like Croatia had more gears it they needed them.
Spain will have a huge amount of the ball when we play them and it looks like we’ll be the tournament whipping boys. I can’t see us scoring another goal to be honest.
@Ace
“Tito Puente is going to be dead, and you’ll say ‘I’ve been listening to him for years!”
Kind of how I feel about Denis Irwin. Longing for some of the old quality.
Agree with you Propagandhi in your last message. This has been coming a long time under Trapattoni and we were finally exposed at the wrong time.
We were exposed – ruthlessly. At times it seemed Crotia’s players were smiling and merely having a kick about. They were never worried. I know there are complaints about Trap’s tactics here, but honestly, on the night whatever formation we used or whatever players we brought off the bench – we were not good enough. Croatia were by far the better team.
Regardless, historically we tend to bounce back well after we have a bad result. I call it the “aggrieved paddy complex.”
We do better when having something to prove. There is always hope that we can play tight defense against Spain for 80 minutes, then sneak in a goal. Stranger things have happened. Football can be funny. At that juncture our destiny would be in our own hands against Italy. Here is to hoping. Conversely, we could just as easily give up against Spain and be beaten 5-1 with several players red carded.
I think it was really telling that the Irish players looked very frustrated for the last half hour and started throwing in a few silly tackles. I don’t think you can fault our players commitment.
re; paul – We were exposed – ruthlessly. At times it seemed Crotia’s players were smiling and merely having a kick about.
I couldn’t agree more with that part Paul but to say that Croatia have player for player a better team is in no way true.
A lot of their team are very ordinary and would be only make decent championship players.
We have McGeady and Duff defending far more than attacking that they may as well be fullbacks / Keane and Doyle had to fight for limited scraps of possession from 40 yard long balls. our players cleared the ball more than passed it.
Even with a team of poor quality players like Austria, Armenia and Macedonia (such as prop mentioned) they are organised enough so that players like Modric don’t just walk up to defense with the ball on repeated occasions and pick out simple passes in your twelve yard box.
Trap is using tactics from the 80s that just don’t work anymore at any level.
Yup, anyone wishing to write off the Irish will always pay for it one way or another. Thing is though, we do have quality. In the first half it was a very even game. We capitulated in the second half.
There can be no doubt that Trapp totally screwd this one up. Taking off McGeady and not replacing him with McClean was a monumental error. To play Cox in McGeadys place was profoundly stupid tactically.
To play Walters before Long was criminal. To play Whelan instead of Gibson was farcical.
Anyhow yes Paul it’s not impossible for us to get 4 (or 6) points out of the next two games and stranger things have happened but tonight we looked like a shabby, shapeless bunch of fools with no ideas other than hoofing the ball at every possible moment.
Duff is shit and has been for a long time, why do we have to persist. If he was any good he would of put the ball past lloris and we would of been in S.Africa. Keane, anonymous as usual in the big games. Not his fault, playing in a winless formation. Doyle, played well but Long is better than him, has more balls and will score 1 on 1.
Trap either is a lunatic or just enjoys making fools out of Ireland, because we’ve a plethora of better players than the 2 statues in midfield (as dunphy calls them). Yawn.
Depressing performance, but there were bright spots. Andrews nearly scored several times–Im hoping Whelan is pulled for Gibson and Doyle is pulled for Long or Walters.
I reckon Gibson, Long will be in against Spain. Andrews more likely to be dropped at the moment judging on how Trap picked the team against Bosnia.
Dropping Andrews would be silly–he’s much better than Whelan.
Agreed. Sit Gibbo in front of the defence and ask Andrews to do the leg work
@Propaghandi I can understand the disappointment after last night’s result, but claiming that Andy Reid (a player that stuggled to get a game for a poor Notts Forest team this season) should be picked for Ireland is laughable.
at this atage wev nothing to lose.bring in mcclean for duffer,gibson for whelan and long for doyle and consider dropping o’shea for kelly.traps sacraficing of quality players for this system has proven to be an absolute waste of talent.the danish team looks just as limited as ours on paper but they still play the modern 4-2-3-1 which still alows for trap 2 holding players.should be:
Given
Kelly-Dunne-St.Ledger-Ward/O’Shea
Gibson-Andrews
McClean-McGeady-Duff
Keane
Keanes a natural goalscorer and has good spacial awareness for link up play so could cope u top on his own he realy wudn offer much sitting back.wev no attacking midfielders to sit behind him tho with no hoolahan,mccarthy etc but mcgeady has played central in the past.as i said wev nothing to lose but realistically trap will play for a 0-0 v spain with a rubbish system/linup/subs and try scrape a win v italy
Trapattoni is going to leave the Irish team in a sorry state when he finally pisses off.
Given, O’Shea, Dunne, Duff, Andrews and Keane will all be retired.
Nobody under the age of 28 will have any significant experience with the team.
We will have to change our formation to 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 6 years after we should have done it, like every other progressive country.
It’s going to be a rebuilding job.
Well, we got to Euro 2012 by finishing above Slovakia and Armenia and beating Estonia in a play off. Look what happened as soon as we play a good team. Same old shit.
It’s a disgrace that Wes Hoolahan will never play for this country (I know he has 1 cap). “He doesn’t fit into the system.” What a crock of shit. Change the fucking system to accomodate our most talented players. That is what EVERY decent manager in football does. Whelan clearly doesn’t fit into the system either. Cost us yesterday and he cost us several times in other competitive matches. He’s shit. You can excuse him for that because you don’t need to be any good to play in a Trapattoni team. What you can’t excuse is him falling asleep and being completely unaware of other players runs.
Trapattoni is 73 years old. He is too old to be managing. He is a dinosaur and is a prehistoric tactician.
He done a great job over 15 years ago but he has been an abject disappointment as Irish boss and anyone that says differently, well I’m sorry but you obviously have a different idea as to what this team could/should be achieving with the players we have.
Denmark 1-0 Holland. Ireland spanked by Croatia. Sickened.
The cheating from the Croatians, the whistle in the crowd, poor refereeing and a stonewall penalty all cost us.
At the end of the day, if that penalty was given like it should have been, we probably would have got a draw. I could go further and say that if their second goal wasn’t given, and it shouldn’t have been, we could have won.
Slaven Bitch and the Croatians don’t have a chance of winning this tournamnent. If you need to cheat to beat Ireland…
Luck of the Irish eh? Decisions always going against us. Story of our National Team.
The amount of excuses I’m reading in the press from Irish players and the shitty management is getting silly.
Yes, the goals we conceded were very soft and it shouldn’t have happened but they played us off the park!!! You could argue we were unlucky to concede those goals but you could also argue we were lucky not to concede more! they had luck with the actual goals but no luck was involved in the build up play. They spent more time in our penalty area then we did in their half.
I live in London and everybody just feels SORRY for the Irish team. Work today has been a pitiful morning . We got a few half chances that’s true but the overall play was of a very low standard it actually makes me feel sick.
Of course I’m still going to watch and support my team as I always do. I’m going to wish for a miracle against Spain but realistically our performances have been pretty poor in qualifying and it would take a complete rethink tactically to stand a chance of not being humiliated on Thursday.
I really think rejuggling the players will make little difference. What we need is to go into the next game with a new game plan because all out defence and 50 yard long balls up to Doyle/long/keane/cox or walters, in which we hand possession back to Spain is not going to work.
If we’re to have any chance whatsoever of getting at least a point against Spian we have to run with this starting 11 in my opinion.
Given
Kelly / O’Shea / Dunne / Ward
Andrews / Gibson
McGeady / Keane / McClean
Long
Robbie Keane’s form is worrisome. He looked out of sorts, did little to nothing. Shane Long has struggled with injuries and is not in the form he was 9 months ago. Cox is not a natural scorer – he only scored once for West Brom this year. Doyle holds up the ball well, but has never been a goal scorer. Walters puts himself in good positions, makes nice runs, but misses chance after chance. In competitive matches, we literally cannot score from open play anymore. We simply do not have the personnel up front.
I like andy’s lineup a lot.
why drop st.leger tho?was solid v croatioa and o’shea was pants
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