Ireland V Cyprus

[Dhav]

Can't believe the ****e I'm reading on this thread.

You lot were expecting to go to Cyprus and walk all over us? Yeah, bacause players like Andy O'Brien, Kilbane and Morrison are better than Marinos Satsias, Stathis Aloneftis and Mihalis Konstantinou?

[Nic83]

Cyprus are sh!te. So are we now.

Management has to be sorted out and so does our poxy central midfield.

Oh, and it's time for Paul mac Shane to be nlooded into the Centre of defense. Steven Reid and Liam Miller is the way forward for now for the Central Midfield ares. Reid given a more holding role than he has at Blackburn.

[The incredible igor]

even if we do come back and win this game.

[MrMichael]

Andy O'Brien- probably the worst ever display from and Irish defender.

Agree, he was utterly poo.

Losing 5-2 to Cyprus has to go down as the darkest day in Irish footy in many many years. However young some of the team was, there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for a performance like that.

[Taffy]

Can't believe the ****e I'm reading on this thread.

You lot were expecting to go to Cyprus and walk all over us? Yeah, bacause players like Andy O'Brien, Kilbane and Morrison are better than Marinos Satsias, Stathis Aloneftis and Mihalis Konstantinou?

Couldn't believe that result either. At this rate the Irish, Wales and San Marino will be fighting it out for the bottom spot!

Cyprus beat us 1-0 in a friendly out there last year but I'd have been confident of beating them at home in a qualifier. Now I'm not so sure, in fact I fear the worst!

Dhavlos mate, what do you reckon of your chances, and what's the general feeling over there about the Wales game ahead?

[Dhav]

Couldn't believe that result either. At this rate the Irish, Wales and San Marino will be fighting it out for the bottom spot!

Cyprus beat us 1-0 in a friendly out there last year but I'd have been confident of beating them at home in a qualifier. Now I'm not so sure, in fact I fear the worst!

Dhavlos mate, what do you reckon of your chances, and what's the general feeling over there about the Wales game ahead?

To be honest mate, a lot of my previous posts on this have been tongue in cheek, just gloating over the result really. Dont forget, a few weeks ago we were spanked 6-1 by Slovakia (who look good by the way) and we seemed to be in crisis. This result came as a big surprise after the Slovakia game, and while some people are getting carried away and even hoping of winning in Cardiff, I dont expect us to get much from Wales. Looks like keeping our feet on the ground will be a problem.

This is one of the biggest wins in our history, along with beating Spain 3-2 a few years ago, and I dont remember us ever winning a game by 3 goals.

This is defintely the best group of players in our history, and the players I mentioned previously like Aloneftis, Satsias, Konstantinou and Okkas are very talented, some of whom have Champions League experience. However, this is not a well organised team, and we'll struggle to get points away from home.

Cypriots are very apethetic about international football, tribal loyalties at club level are more important to them, and that applies to the players as well as the fans.

[johnp]

To be honest mate, a lot of my previous posts on this have been tongue in cheek, just gloating over the result really. Dont forget, a few weeks ago we were spanked 6-1 by Slovakia (who look good by the way) and we seemed to be in crisis. This result came as a big surprise after the Slovakia game, and while some people are getting carried away and even hoping of winning in Cardiff, I dont expect us to get much from Wales. Looks like keeping our feet on the ground will be a problem.

This is one of the biggest wins in our history, along with beating Spain 3-2 a few years ago, and I dont remember us ever winning a game by 3 goals.

This is defintely the best group of players in our history, and the players I mentioned previously like Aloneftis, Satsias, Konstantinou and Okkas are very talented, some of whom have Champions League experience. However, this is not a well organised team, and we'll struggle to get points away from home.

Cypriots are very apethetic about international football, tribal loyalties at club level are more important to them, and that applies to the players as well as the fans.

We were talking about this in work today. Both Cyprus strikers play in the CL, none of Irelands do. In fact, from the team that started only Finnan, McGeady and O'Shea play in the CL. But in fairness, O'Shea would do well to get a call up to my 5-a-side game.

But I don't want to take away from Cyprus. They wanted the win, and totally deserved it

[johnp]

Heard some muppet from the FAI (can't remember his name) on the radio this morning.
Said we were unlucky. We didn't get the breaks

[Taffy]

To be honest mate, a lot of my previous posts on this have been tongue in cheek, just gloating over the result really. Dont forget, a few weeks ago we were spanked 6-1 by Slovakia (who look good by the way) and we seemed to be in crisis. This result came as a big surprise after the Slovakia game, and while some people are getting carried away and even hoping of winning in Cardiff, I dont expect us to get much from Wales. Looks like keeping our feet on the ground will be a problem.

This is one of the biggest wins in our history, along with beating Spain 3-2 a few years ago, and I dont remember us ever winning a game by 3 goals.

This is defintely the best group of players in our history, and the players I mentioned previously like Aloneftis, Satsias, Konstantinou and Okkas are very talented, some of whom have Champions League experience. However, this is not a well organised team, and we'll struggle to get points away from home.

Cypriots are very apethetic about international football, tribal loyalties at club level are more important to them, and that applies to the players as well as the fans.

Well I'll be honest and thought Slovakia weren't that good, and that Wales had beaten better teams than them in the past.

Only thing was they took basically every chance they had - with a little help from Jones in goal or our defence! In the first half I thought we were terribly unlucky not to be at least level as we were the better team with regards possession and threat to the opposition's goal, but as usual we couldn't take our chances whilst they made the most of every breakaway they had.

Our heads must be down after such a thumping at home, but we've a lot of youngsters so I'm hoping they will just try to forget it and move on to the next game. We don't have much of a squad to pick from so I suspect most of those that played on Saturday will be back again tomorrow night, which is a worry for me as we just don't have the talent and experience available to challenge in this group anyway!

I expect Cyprus to be well up for it after a great win at the weekend, but before Saturday's game against Slovakia I thought the Cyprus game would have been the easiest of the two and expected us to win that one tomorrow night.

Now I'm not so sure, but still hoping I'm proved wrong. Good luck.

[Nic83]

Dalglish is possibly coming in now. Great news, if true. pathetic performance on saturday.

Saying that iI wouldn't be surprised if we do the czechs.

[Dhav]

Well I'll be honest and thought Slovakia weren't that good, and that Wales had beaten better teams than them in the past.

Only thing was they took basically every chance they had - with a little help from Jones in goal or our defence! In the first half I thought we were terribly unlucky not to be at least level as we were the better team with regards possession and threat to the opposition's goal, but as usual we couldn't take our chances whilst they made the most of every breakaway they had.

Our heads must be down after such a thumping at home, but we've a lot of youngsters so I'm hoping they will just try to forget it and move on to the next game. We don't have much of a squad to pick from so I suspect most of those that played on Saturday will be back again tomorrow night, which is a worry for me as we just don't have the talent and experience available to challenge in this group anyway!

I expect Cyprus to be well up for it after a great win at the weekend, but before Saturday's game against Slovakia I thought the Cyprus game would have been the easiest of the two and expected us to win that one tomorrow night.

Now I'm not so sure, but still hoping I'm proved wrong. Good luck.

What worries me is that after being in crisis after the Slovakia game, things have gone the other way and people are talking about us getting a record points tally in a qualifying group (ie 12 points). All of a sudden complacency is a problem.

I definitely think we have the talent to trouble Wales, but again I think we would have to rely on Welsh mistakes to win the game. Dont underestimate players like Konstantinou, Okkas and Aloneftis though. With them a draw is by no means out of the question.