View Full Version : France Vs Ireland Oct 9th
im going to the france ireland match in paris october 9th. over 25000 irish applied to the footballl association of ireland for tickets. my friend was randomly selected by computer and got two tickets. he had like probably a 1 in a 200 chance of getting tickets. he gave the other one to me as you have probably guessed. the tickets havent actuallly arrived yet though think they are been posted next week. we are shocked we got tickets but we are delighted its going to be a great weekend. over 20000 irish are expected to travel to paris many without tickets. the match on a saturday we are flying in friday night and going home monday evening (all the flights back on sunday were booked out) the only bad thing is ill be broke after weekend and am going to have to stay in the next few sat nights trying to spare money. i hope the paris nightlife will make up for it.
as it stands ireland and france both have 4 points.
matchday 1
Ireland beat cyrus 3-0 at home
France drew 0-0 wit irasel at home
matchday2
Ireland drew 1-1 away with switzerland
france beat the faroe islands 2-0 away
Zidane,Thuram, Lizaruaru,Desailly all retired international duty after euro 2004
Claude Makele retired 2 wks ago after not been picked for game against faroe islands
Vieria is suspended for ireland game
with all the above missing and frances less than immpressive current form plus irelands habit of rising to the occassion against big teams i think we will get a result either a draw or win.
For those of ye who are not familar with the irish team here is how i would expect us to line up taking into account injuries and form
Given(Newcastle)
Finnan(Liverpool) O'Brien(Newcastle) Cunnigham(Birimigham) O'Shea(Man Utd)
Reid(Notts Forest) Keane(Man Utd) Kilbane(Everton) Duff(Chelsea)
Robbie Keane(Spurs) Morrrison(Birimigham)
France on the hand will have Henry and Trezeguet(who seems to be back in form unfortunately 3 goals in games in serie a for juve)
i may be too optimistic here but im predicting 1-0 to ireland with Roy Keane scoring.(but it doesnt really matter who scores)
What way does everyone else see the match going? as we all support milan we are all knowledge football fans so the poll should be accurate if everyone who is familar with the teams votes.
Giovanni
20-09-2004, 13:38
Go ON Ireland!
You have a very good team, possibly one of the best in the last years (actually my knowledge is not that accurate).
I will be your supporter in these qualifyes
Go ON Ireland!
You have a very good team, possibly one of the best in the last years (actually my knowledge is not that accurate).
I will be your supporter in these qualifyes
thanks yeah it probably is our best team since Italia '90 well in my opionon anyway though im not sure all the irish newspapers would agree with me.
im really looking forward to it. it will be my first time at an Ireland away match, ive been at a few home games but not many very hard to get tickets cost landsdown road our stadium can only hold round 40000. in fact i have been at more milan games 4 than irish games 3. the last irish game i was at was a qualifer for euro 2004 when we beat kalazde's georiga 2-0 was not long after we had won the champions league. he played good. i was wearing a white milan jersey but with an irish flag wrapped around me behind one of the goals
Ruud Gullit
20-09-2004, 14:09
I think France will win, because they play at home and have more good players than Ireland. I will support Ireland, because I like some of their players: S.Carr, S.Given.
paolobalde
20-09-2004, 14:15
i think that Kilbane should be replaced with Kavanagh, No disrespect to Kilbane he always gives his best but it might be better to have Kavanagh in as he is a better central midfielder.
As for Reid he better go quick and apologise to Kinnear and get some first team football under him.
if ireland play like we did against holland a few months back we can win
Giovanni
20-09-2004, 15:07
did anyone go to the ireland-brazil match? dida was super!!! i guess tickets were hard to find
Stezagud
20-09-2004, 16:38
I reckon Ireland could sneak a draw maybe 1 - 1 ;)
If Keane plays like he did today they will be near unbeatable because he was absolutely brilliant :D
Doesnt Carr get in the side anymore? He has started well in his Toon career. Maybe Finnan could play instead of Kilbane in midfield and then Carr at RB?
I definately think Ireland could nick a point over there, possibly more, certainly if the French perform as they have been. I think it all depends how France play on the day. I still reckon that even without Zidane, Thuram, Lizarazu and Makelele they should have enough quality to beat most sides if they perform. Vieira missing is a blow for them though no doubt. It could be in midfield where the Irish could make it difficult for them, keeping the game tight and stopping them playing. For me the French sides of the last few years, at their best always looked so balanced in Midfield. For me, There is no-one around who can do the things Zidane can do and he gave France an authority and a creative strength that they will obviously miss very very badly. Pedretti looks to me as if he could be a good long term replacement but he is not Zidane and is inexperienced. Vieira and Makelele always looked good together and were a fantastic base for the likes of Zidane and Pires to play. Whether France can find this blend again in the short term remains to be seen and they certainly look a bit, well, empty in there now.
Actually Keano did look good tonight. I thought that games were starting to pass him by but he looked sharp again and was pretty dominant. I'll be interested to see how he performs against the French. I was impressed by Damian Duff yesterday against Spurs though, I thought he really livened up what was otherwise a pretty boring game. I've never been his biggest fan really but he caused Tottenham all sorts of problems, although he was only on for a short while.
Paddy De Nagan
21-09-2004, 08:59
Allez Les Verts!!!!
3 votes for ireland
2 for france
1 for draw
so far its pretty close my views on some of the comments so far:
1) yes keane was very good last night completely dominated midfield, it was like the roy keane of old, good to see unfortunately however he is after been charged by the police for assualt though today, but he is not the type to let that affect his performance.
2) stephen carr vs steven finnan: i think finnan will get the nod but it will be a close call, both played the last game against the swiss but o' shea was injured for that and i expect him to resume at left back where finnan played. however finnan played much better than carr in the last game so i think he will be moved to right back. carr had good game for newcastle at weekend though.
3) kilbane vs kavannagh is a tough call, i think kilbane offers more going forward though. he also has more international experience. Matt Holland captain of charlton Athlethic is injured and is not expected to be fit in time. he would have been the ideal partner for keane in midfield. kilbane and kavannagh could both play if reid is dropped as kilbane could play on the left with duff going over to the right.
any french members here? your views plus the expected team would make this thread more interesting.
Giovanni
21-09-2004, 13:01
the only french i remember is David Gallo who has clearly italian origins and i doubt he supports the Bleus instead of Italian team, as i can remember
Hope Pires will be among the start line-up this time.
paolobalde
22-09-2004, 12:08
what about young Elliot at sunderland??? he is doing well lately
what about young Elliot at sunderland??? he is doing well lately
its too big a game to risk the likes of him, would not mind seeing McGeady of celtic in the squad though but not in the starting 11.
france are now ahead in the poll, we need more voters!
paolobalde
23-09-2004, 07:36
i know it is a big game but morrison or keane are not performing and what is better?? Two strikers that have the experience but are not scoring OR a striker that has a lot of u-21 experience and is free scoring at the moment.
Remember back in brussels. McCarthy brought Connolly, Quinn and Cascarino who were going through a bad spell. He went for the tried and trusted. Ireland lost that night two-one.
That same night a 17 yr old by the name of Robbie keane was scoring yet another goal for Wolves!!!!!
morrison has scored in the last two international games and while robbie keane dint play that well in the last two he was just back from injury, he should be back in form by oct 9th, we cant leave him he is tthe joint top scorer for us ever already at 24. morrison and keane definitely will be our strikers barring injury.
but you do have a point and i agree that mccarthy should have put robbie in the squad sooner, dont think elliot in same class as robbie though
I think that isn't strong like before 2-3 years, and I think that Ireland can win, but you must be very carefully because they still can be very dangerous.
GO IRELAND!!!!!!
Ireland will win (at least that's my expectation) because I don't like France NT. :D
Ireland will win this game ! :stuckup:
FORZA Robbie Keane :rock3: :rock3:
FORZA Ian Harte :rock3: :rock3:
spurs man u was on tv ireland there bout an hour ago watched some of and was pleased to see roy keane and john o shea again playing together again in centre midfield. they both played well. thats 2 games in a row now that o shea has started centre mid for man u so it could be an option for brian kerr to pick the two of them together centre midfield for their country against france. it would free up o shea from left back and allow finnan and carr both to play as fullbacks thus putting an end to the debate of who should start finnan or carr. also liam miller came on in the right of midfield for man u as a sub. thats more good news as he has recovered from injury quicker than expected. he could be a good sub to bring on in paris with an outside chance of starting if there are a couple of injuries.
totti_jonaid
28-09-2004, 02:16
Ireland. Simply because without Zizo France cannot score. The match against Israel shows it all. Henry and company can only score when the ball is given to them with onlythe Keeper to beat. The only chance for France is to defend well and hope that Ireland's Defender make a blunder so France can score.My view is that France will Fail to make it to the World cup. :rocky:
Kerr announces squad for qualifiers
Brian Kerr today, Wednesday, 29 September 2004, announced a squad of 24 for Ireland’s upcoming World Cup games with France and Faroe Islands.
Matt Holland and Liam Miller having missed the last two games against Cyprus and Switzerland through injury, return to the squad. Matt has played two reserve games in the last week and hopes to be involved with the first team at Arsenal next Saturday. Liam came on as a substitute in Manchester United’s last two games on Saturday and Tuesday night. John O’Shea has recovered from the thigh muscle injury that forced him out of the match in Switzerland is also back in the squad.
Richard Dunne returns to the squad and Graham Barrett retains his place having been a late addition through withdrawals in the September games.
The squad will assemble in Dublin for training on Tuesday 5th October and depart for Paris on Thursday 7th returning to Dublin on Sunday 10th in preparation for the game with the Faroe Island on Wednesday 13th in Lansdowne.
Squad v France & Faroe Islands
Shay Given (Newcastle United) Born: 20/04/76 Caps: 63
Paddy Kenny (Sheffield United) Born: 17/05/78 Caps: 3
Nick Colgan (Barnsley) Born: 19/09/73 Caps: 8
Stephen Carr (Newcastle United) Born: 29/08/76 Caps: 33 Goals: 0
Andy O’Brien (Newcastle United) Born: 29/06/79 Caps: 15 Goals: 0
Kenny Cunningham (Birmingham) Born: 28/06/71 Caps: 60 Goals: 0
Alan Maybury (Hearts) Born: 08/08/78 Caps: 9 Goals: 0
Richard Dunne (Manchester City) Born: 21/9/79 Caps: 20 Goals: 4
Gary Breen (Sunderland) Born: 12/12/73 Caps: 61 Goals: 7
John O’Shea (Manchester United) Born: 30/04/81 Caps: 16 Goals: 1
Steve Finnan (Liverpool) Born: 20/04/76 Caps: 31 Goals: 1
Andy Reid (Nottingham Forest) Born: 29/07/82 Caps: 10 Goals: 2
Matt Holland (Charlton Athletic) Born: 11/04/74 Caps: 43 Goals: 5
Roy Keane (Manchester United) Born: 10/08/71 Caps: 61 Goals: 9
Kevin Kilbane (Everton) Born: 01/02/77 Caps: 56 Goals: 4
Liam Miller (Manchester United) Born: 13/02/81 Caps: 5 Goals: 0
Graham Kavanagh (Cardiff City) Born: 2/12/73 Caps: 8 Goals: 1
Alan Quinn (Sheffield United) Born: 13/06/79 Caps: 5 Goals: 0
Graham Barrett (Coventry City) Born: 6/10/81 Caps: 5 Goals: 2
Damien Duff (Chelsea) Born: 2/3/79 Caps: 46 Goals: 6
Gary Doherty (Norwich City) Born: 31/01/80 Caps: 28 Goals: 4
Alan Lee (Cardiff City) Born: 21/08/78 Caps: 7 Goals: 0
Clinton Morrison (Birmingham) Born: 14/05/79 Caps: 24 Goals: 7
Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur) Born: 08/07/80 Caps: 54 Goals: 21
France name squad
France have named a 20-man squad for the two World Cup qualifying clashes with the Republic of Ireland on October 9 and Cyprus on October 13.
An unconvincing start to the campaign has seen France draw 0-0 with Israel in Paris before beating the Faroe Islands 2-0 and manager Raymond Domenech has responded by recalling Manchester United centre half Mikael Silvestre while also awarding a first call-up to Juventus defence Jonathan Zebina.
Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira is included in the squad despite being suspended for the clash with Ireland at the Stade de France while Sylvain Wiltord of Lyon is recalled.
Squad: Barthez (Marseilles), Coupet (Lyon), Boumsong (Rangers), Evra (Monaco), Gallas (Chelsea), Givet (Monaco), Silvestre (Manchester United), Squillaci (Monaco), Zebina (Juventus), Dacourt (Roma), Diarra (Lens), Mavuba (Bordeaux), Vieira (Arsenal), Cisse (Liverpool), Giuly (Barcelona), Govou (Lyon), Henry (Arsenal), Pires (Arsenal), Trezeguet (Juventus), Wiltord (Lyon).
the odds for the match from paddy power bookmakers
France v Ireland
France 4 - 9
Draw 3 - 1
Ireland 6 - 1
They do not seem to be too confident about irelands chances.
an interesting bet which ill put a euro on is ireland to win 2 1 with robbie keane scoring 1st goal 100 - 1 odds
Paddy De Nagan
05-10-2004, 09:40
Trezeguet is out of clash!
Trezeguet is out of clash!
i know its good news for ireland and milan that he is injured. he has been playing well lately
Stezagud
05-10-2004, 12:31
it could be bad news in a way though. Ireland have a Premiership based defence and an play in a British style. If Saha plays instead of Trezeguet he will be used to it. I still think Ireland could sneak a draw though, and with Duff back who knows, maybe more ;)
an interesting bet which ill put a euro on is ireland to win 2 1 with robbie keane scoring 1st goal 100 - 1 odds
i might put a pound on that :D
injury update:
Richard Dunne is out of the Ireland squad. (doubtful he would have played)
Ludovic Giuly of Barcalona out of French squad (I presume he would have played)
France VS Ireland
Personal hope for a draw! :diablo:
A win over Switzerland will put us(Israel) at the top! :w262:
:D
Im off tomorrow can't wait. the poll very close at the moment. ireland ahead by one. there are 35000 irish now expected in paris. 35000! thats a lot of supporters. it was in the newspaper yesterday that the french players are worried that it will turn into a home game for the irish with so many irish fans who always make themselves heard. they quoted Mikael Silvestre in the paper. in todays paper the Ireland manager Brian Kerr declared that the Irish were going to paris for a win not a draw.
the following is a report about the number of irish fans going over from the football association of irelands website:
Paris in Autumn, October 9th to be more precise will see the French capital invaded by Brian Kerr’s Travelling Army as France host the Republic of Ireland at Stade de France in a World Cup 2006 Group 4 Qualifying game.
Republic of Ireland fans have a reputation of being tremendous ambassadors for the country and this has been acknowledged by both UEFA and FIFA and we would ask all visitors to the City of Lights to be mindful of the local customs, culture and laws without it impinging on your enjoyment.
The Football Association of Ireland received over 25,000 requests for match tickets for this game for the original allocation 8,000, (This was increased to 19,000 thanks to the demand and the co-operation of the French Football Federation).
It has been reported that many other fans have sourced tickets from different sources in France and through the internet with the result there could be up to 35,000 of the Green Army in the French capital on the day.
There may be some security issues with so many congregating and while the local Police are aware of the "invasion" and Ireland fans’ reputation for friendliness and "the craic" we would urge all to be observant of their behaviour and heed any lawful instruction from the local Police.
well im logging out won't be back to tuesday. my flight isnt back until monday night. im bringing my dad's digital camera so hopefully ill be able to post some pictures. not sure how to do it but sure ill figure it out. might need help though.
the match is on eurosport aswell as far as i know at 8 irish and uk time and 9 central european time.
anyway i better get out my french phrase book and start learning. i will be talking to every french girl i see!
im back great weekend. drew 0-0 but great performance should have won. ended up with around 40000 irish in the stadium. L'Equipe the french paper gave barthez their goalkeeper man of the match. drinking all weekend. wrecked tired after it. ill give a full report on the weekend later. some crazy stories
Here is full reort on the weekend as promised.
Friday: Flight leaves Dublin at 7.15 pm. Paul (my friend who got the tickets) and I both skip college for the day wisely deciding that getting up for the 9 am lecture would cause us to miss out on sleep of which we would not be getting much of over in Paris. Paul is driving collects me at 2. Make dublin airport in plenty of time. Loads of irish jerseys everywhere. There is 35 flights from Dublin to Paris today. Go to airport bar. Have 1st drinks of weekend. About to go to check in gate learn flight delayed 45 mins. Get another pint. Board plane seems about 95% of the flight going to the match except for an absolutely stunningly gorgeous french girl sitting alongside paul. My luck to get the window seat when it is dark outside. The mystery girl is engrossed in a book so Paul doesnt get much out of her. Loads of beer being brought on plane with many buying several cans. We are near enough the middle of the plane so by time the flight attendant reaches our seats with her trolley the flight has ran out of beer! Arrive paris safely get train from CDG airport to paris. By the time we have found our luxury 2 star hotel! and got ready to go out its almost 1am. Eventually find some sort of cafe/bar with a few people and have few drinks. we go back hotel early enough around 3 knowing saturday and sunday night will be more eventful.
Saturday: The day of the match. Weather cold and wet probably better back home in Ireland for once. At the airport bar, on the flight etc everyone is saying it would be a great laugh if every irish person could meet up at 2pm at the effiel tower. we get metro to Effiel tower area and arrive there around 1 pm. decide to get food in one of the resturant/bars in the area. The cafe we are in is packed with Irish people. Hardly any seats. We are looking around for seats when a man says to us to sit down at the 2 vacant seats at their table. So we seat down with these 2 men and a woman who are probably on in their 40's. The woman turns out to be Damian Duff's Mother !! We are not aware of this but are eating our steak and chips with our huge mug of beer the size of which you cant buy in Ireland and talking away to the 3 people from dublin and having a good laugh wit them. They were telling us about how they go to every Irish match and were at the world cup in japan/korea etc. eventually towards the end of the meal they said they were at chelsea liverpool the week before which inevitably brought up the topic of Damian Duff Chelsea and Ireland £17 million sterling left winger. Naturallypaul and i were full of praise for damain and then one of the men told us we had just had lunch with damian duff's mother. when he said it you could see the resemblance. We all shook hands as they left and we thought it was class to have met damians mother. About half 2 we went down to the effiel tower in the rain. Thousands of Irish had taken it over! with flags slabs of beer and footballs( the footballs reminded me of the celebrationd down in the square outside the cathedral in milan after winning the league in may). We got some beer in nearby shop and joined in to the singsong. Loads of french people were taking pictures of us and some were asking could they pose in the pictures with us. ( All the french people were very friendly and seemed to love all us Irish with many comiong over shaking hands with us and giving thumbs up signs when they saw our jerseys. They all thought we were crazy but loveable and Im glad to say that despite 40000 irish being in Paris there was not a single report of trouble.) we were down in the effiel tower for a few hours and it was great fun. I dont mean to come across as arrogant but i honestly believe that only the Irish could pull off over 10000 people all meeting up through word of mouth and turning the effiel tower into a party zone with the whole thing passing off trouble free with indeed some french joining in.
Going to The Match: We got the metro to the stade de france after quite a few drinks. we met a guy from sligo who had been seperated from his friends. At this stage I should make ye aware of the fact that the army of 40000 Irish fans which descended on paris for the weekend caused a system overload for French mobile telephone networks and so from about 1 pm saturday to 6 pm sunday Irish mobile phones in paris stopped working with no coverage. So the guy from sligo which is a county in ireland had no way of contacting his friends. we went to a bar near stadium and had a pint each for 8 euro each. we decided that this was too much for a pint so we asked for a bottle of wine each. after a lot of bargaining with the bar staff who we were having a good laugh with we got 3 bottles of wine for 30 euro 10 euro each. intially the asking price was 75 euro. the match came closer and we drank back our bottles of wine and said good bye to our new friend from sligo and made our way to the stadium. at this stage we each had had about eight oints and a big bottle of wine each so we well drunk. Paul actually had to get sick for a little while and threw up a small bit. Lightweight!! Anyway as we were walking the short trip to the stadium diaster struck we got seperated! Paul had both tickets! This is about an hour and half before kickoff with 80000 people making their way to stadium. Its not a good idea to be very drunk and separated when your phone isnt working in a crowd of almost 80000 people. I was very Lucky to get a new ticket. I was asking people had they any reception on their phones because my friend had my ticket and of course they didnt have any reception either. I was getting a little bit worried at this stage! but thankfully a guy from dublin had a spare ticket and very generously gave it to me for free. He must have been my guardian angel in disguise!! Into the stadium.
The Match.: Behind the goals in the south section with the majority of the Irish fans I saw two girls and went up talking to them and stood alongside them for the match and we had a good laugh together. Irish people everywhere in the stadium. Irish tricolours hanging from every corner. An away match against a country as big as france and probably just about more Irish than french at the match. to put things into perspective ireland has population of 4million Paris alone I think has 5million with the whole of france i think 70million. the atmosphere was electric and we drunkenly sans and sang and give our boys in green huge support. we even sang the french natonal anthem at the start which was a wonderful scene. the match was a great game with Irland enjoying most of the possesion and unlucky not to win. Every Irish player was brillant so dont want to single any of them out. The best of the french were Barthez( Lucky to stay on the pitch, he threw an elbow when the ball in play, if ref had seen it he probably would have given him ared card and given a penalty) and Gallas and Pires. Through out the match we sang 'Come on ye Boys in Green' 'The Fields of Athenry' and the most rousing rendition I ever heard of 'You'll never walk Alone' Also 'Thierry Henry Ur HAving a Laugh' The best song though was about going to the world cup in Germany 'Que sera sera, Whatever will be, will be, we're going to Germany' We are top of the group and the way we dominated the french in Paris we have every chance of making it and Ill will certainly be going to Germany aswell.
Saturday and sunday night: Took place in the ***alle district for long nights of unbridled revelry. The Moulin Rouge was full with Irish and a seroius amount of drink was consumed especially in an Irish pub called O Sullivans in the Moulin Rouge. Saturday night dont remember what time we mad it back to hotel id say around 6 but sunday we didnt make it back until after 8 on the metro back to hotel with people going to work.
Sunday and Monday: We saw all the tourist attractions. Th Lourve with the Mona Lisa. The Arc D'Triompe the Champe D'Elyse Notre dame Cathderal etc. Went home monday night.
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