Dont have the players ladsā¦doesnt help when you allow Belgium play on their terms but our touch and decision making was very poor. At the same time they are ranked no.1 in Europe for a reason, they have some lovely ball players to be fairā¦ I have to say the Belgian fans are great, theyd drink all day and from the minute we left our apartment they were trying to give us cansā¦ The cunts are giving it welly all around us but they are loving the Irish and just want good old fashioned banter and singing. Long night aheadā¦even longer road ahead for Irish soccer but thats the joys of playing a true international sport when you are a small nation. We go againā¦ ps McCarthy can go shit in his hat.
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Donāt spill your tae from that MUG.
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Im drinking beer surrounded by Irish, Belgian and French, mate. Youre in a mud hud in Tipperary 
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OāNeill would be better off putting Irish lads in there instead of non-trying bangers.
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Mudhut 
Trapp was right about Wes all along. Wonder if heāll get an apology?
Wholesale changes are required for Wednesday. I was worried about our freshness/fitness given the way we fell away in the second half on Monday night and our injuries and that was borne out today. Pretty poor from OāNeill to only make the one enforced change. As I said, Stephen Quinn should have started today and a couple of others should have come in too. I didnāt share the half time optimism. We were yards off them in the first half and their second goal (a cross under no pressure from an advanced wide position) was a replica of several similar incidents in the first half.
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How can Irish soccer revolve now in order to produce players with basic skill sets above what the likes of Whelan, hendricks, long, McLean etc etc have.
The Syrians might help in a generation or two. They might be better than club foot paddy.
Battle is lost in the heartland of Irish football as monoliths like Kimacud Crokes Dominate the sporting landscape.
Stephen Quinn has to start in place of McCarthy on Wednesday night. Fuck it we really missed Walters todayā¦The Belgian center halves kicked Long up and down the park. Walters would have taken some of the pressure off him and given us a physical edge.
Writing was on the wall at half time for me, could be a similar result on Wednesday I fear as I donāt buy the notion that Italy wonāt give a shit, whoever they put out will be better technically then us and will want to impress Conte for the round of 16.
We need to start supporting the LOI and stop relying on the granny rule.
The most passionate and insightful Eire soccer fans donāt want to watch loi kid. The best soccer minds in Eire are not involved in the game āofflineā either.
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Young lads going to England at 15, unless theyāre really exceptional isnāt going to work anymore. Thereās too much competition over there now. We need to develop players at home first.
If half the crowd over in France started attending LOI games regularly weād be going in the right direction.
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The strength of our domestic league has fuck all to do with it in my opinion. Sending every player to England does however. Too many bit part players at crap English clubs who get exposed when they come up against something different. The formula isnāt working for England, it certainly wonāt work for our playing population.
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If our domestic league has fuck all to do with it, what do you suggest mate?
They donāt seem to realise that the Italian subs will be playing for places. They will destroy Ireland.
Would you really have started Quinn? Our midfield definitely looked jaded,. The only one who seemed to be fit and energetic enough was Hendrick but he had a poor game on the ball. Hoolahan looked knackered, Brady was peripheral, Whelan was very restricted, McCarthy either tired badly or just completely lost concentration.
Agreed on the cross. We were letting them just play little lobbed crosses into our box in the first half - full backs werenāt tight enough and midfield werenāt supporting them to mark the next player on the wing as happened for the goal. It was only a matter of time before they capitalised given their physical presence through Witsel, Lukaku and the three centre backs.
Be interesting to see what happens for the Italy game now. Hoolahan for example looks like heād struggle to play a meaningful part and yet we have no suitable replacement for that advanced role, assuming Walters is still injured. McGeady is too short of matches, Hendrick isnāt quite creative enough, Robbie canāt play that deep.
Knowing OāNeill heāll make minimal changes.
Something is very wrong when we havenāt produced a player of reasonable quality let alone a team in 20 years. Maybe Duff was the last really good technical player Eire had who could compete at a high club level and didnāt look like a donkey on the ball.
The system is failing badly and there seems to be no acknowledgment from the organisation that the system has failed, let alone any noise about changing and fixing it.
Who is responsible?
The Italian subs are nothing to worry about, we can hold Italy in a way that we were never likely to do with Belgium, theyāll play us off the park but wonāt have the edge or quality of Belgium, we could Nick something from a set piece but itās hard to have any confidence of a victory.