France Vs Israel

Dub13

0:0,its been dull so far...second half is under way now.the way France are playing we have nothing to fear.

there is a bloke playing called Schilacci...remember him...

thejollyrodger

It must be hard to play in Israel. I could see it being a draw, but the french should win.

Raskolnikov

The match was on TV5 by the way, free to view if you have Sky Digital.

France were poor, not only that, but they seemed very half-assed in their approach. Overpayed primma-donna's, I honestly think Ireland should get a result from them.

mike65

I did'nt see the whole game but in all the parts I did, France looked thoroughly disjointed. In fact had Israel some ambition they might have snuck a goal.

Were France hit hard by injury? I did'nt recognise a good half of the starting 11.

Mike.

andyman

Well Desially,Lizarazu and Thuram retired I didnt see it was it very dull?

mike65

Very dull!

Mike.

ps for those in the know it was in English on Setanta as was the Swiss game.

Pigman II

That was a bad result for us. France won't play that badly again and Israel have been gifted a point as well as invited into the mix.

knobbles

Pigman II wrote:

That was a bad result for us. France won't play that badly again and Israel have been gifted a point as well as invited into the mix.

certainly dont agree with that thinking!
france are our main rival for automatic qualification, that result gives us a better(too early to say great) chance of winning the group.
and it gives Kerr and the boys every reason to now set their sights on topping the group.

But if what you say is based on the hope of just getting a top 2 finish i still wouldn't see israels point as a threat. Their threat will only be real if they beat us. Either way I still dont think they'll finish above Swiss and definately not Ireland or France.

DamoRed

The loss of two points for France is ten times more valuable to us than the one gained by Israel. No disrespect to them, but they really aren't in the running for a top two finish. This result will be wonderful for the Irish lads' confidence. We scored three goals, albeit against a crap Cyprus team, but still without our strongest midfield. The thoughts of taking on a listless looking France, without Zidane and others who retired, will give them a great boost, knowing they can play them with more than a decent chance of a top result.

This is not to discount or dismiss the threat and prospect of a certain Thierry Henry, doing what we know he can do, ripping through defences, aided by Pires and Vieira. But we have to be positive. Overall, a very ordinary performance from a team bedding in a few newer players. While on the other hand, we saw first hand the superb skill of our own debutant, Andy Reid, in a Man Of The Match performance. Add to this a fully fit Damien Duff and Robbie Keane and the odd guest appearance of 'the other fella'

We've a lot to be hopeful about.

Damo

Drag00n79

It must be hard to play in Israel.

The match was in Paris. I agree that the matches away to Israel will be tough for all of the teams in the group but the French dropped two points last night .

Bateman

Regardless of whether or not France are capable of playing so poorly again, it is definitely a pleasant surprise, 2 points dropped by them is happy days no matter what way you look at it.

Pigman II

If Israel don't make any waves in this group then yes it was a good result. But I'm not writing off them that quickly.

This will be their first campaign in a while where they actually get to play home games AT HOME and the fact that they've already netted a result in what should on paper be their hardest tie sets a marker that we shouldn't just dismiss as a blip. The last thing we need to be doing is competing with them when they have what is in effect a 1pt start on us. I would have much rather them to have been killed off on day one and not have the French already playing catch-up .... especially when WE are the next visitors to their patch.

TBH I would rather have France run away with the group and us getting an easy 2nd than have FOUR teams scrapping for 1st and especially 2nd. It's early days but I can increasingly see this being the case.

thejollyrodger

damn, i forgot it was in Stade de France. Good performance by the Israelis then . Cant see that performance lasting for the rest of the tournament and expect the israelis go down hill after a few games.

France should have won it. Good news for us

Bateman

I think you shoud have more confidence in our team Pigman. I don't think France really "do backlashes". They are a spineless, gutless lot in recent years and I wouldn't be at all worried about them having a "sting in their tail" or any such nonsense. I "fear" (for want of a better word) the French away fixture purely because they have some quality players, but the Israel game certainly doesn't make me "fear" them any more. As you say Israel should not be discounted, but then, even if France had beat them last night they would hardly be history after one round of games.

Dewey

Henry has come out and said he is burned out from football at the moment. its funny, he always saids stuff like that whenever he plays bad for France. He played over 40 games for Arsenal last season and didnt say anything but when France lose of drop points there is always something.

I'm delighted France dropped 2 points. Its always important getting off to a good start and this could come back to haunt France. but we have to give credit to Israel, i think its going to be really hard to beat them but i would expect 3 points against them at home and a point away.

Pigman II

I'm not really talking about French 'backlashes'.

I'm saying the fact that they've unquestionably squandered 2 pts yesterday will make them even more motivated to beat us next month in order to stay in contention for 1st, where as previously they might have (off the record you understand) been reasonably happy to get a draw with us in Paris and subseqently carve the group up between them and ourselves (presuming we beat/drew with the Swiss in Basle of course).

Althought that said, if France play anything like yesterday in next months game then I don't see us having too many problems anyway.

Bateman

True enough, France away, regardless of their recent form, is going to be our most difficult game. But I just don't buy them being more motivated, and even if they are, that doesn't mean we won't be able to live with them. It will bring out the best in some of our players hopefully (Keane, Keane, Duff), assuming they all report for duty.

Dub13

Pigman II wrote:

TBH I would rather have France run away with the group and us getting an easy 2nd than have FOUR teams scrapping for 1st and especially 2nd. It's early days but I can increasingly see this being the case.

If you were in the Ireland camp Roy Keane would have a few words for you.... :eek: ,Have faith lad we can top this group...I am not saying we will but we can.

eirebhoy

eirebhoy on 22/06/2004 wrote:

Nobody should underestimate Israel. France only beat them 2-1 last year with a full strenght team on neutral ground (in Italy to be precise). We will be playing them in Israel this time so they will be really up for it playing in front of their fans in competition for the first time in a while. The Irish players will probably bottle it in front of such a hostile crowd.

Israel are 57th in the rankings ahead of Wales and up there with Scotland, Australia and european championship supremo's Latvia. The beat Georgia away from home in their last match. They are unbeaten at home since 1999 (13 matches) which included a 1-1 draw with Spain in a qualifier. Russia haven't been beaten at home in competition in decades AFAIK and Israel beat them in a friendly 2-1 in Moscow last August.

We should beat them at home but I wouldn't be too confident about playing them in Tel Aviv. Switzerland are the first team to travel to Israel to play them so at least we'll see what they're like then.

As for this being a bad result for Ireland, you've got to be joking. We have to play Switzerland and France away from home. If we lost both games and France and the Swizz won their first 3 games we would be 6 points behind them. Luckily for us we will only be a maximum of 4 points behind France after yesterday's result.

We haven't got the best of records in playoffs so should be aiming for top spot.

evilhomer

never underestimate the underdog's!
we were the underdogs for years in international competitions and have gotten into a few finals despite that.
Also if you think back just a couple of months you will remember a certain underdog winning the European Championship, Greece!
Isreal look like a side that can grind out results and sides that can gring out results win things (Greece and FC Porto being examples of that!).
I wonder with the current unrest between Palestine and Isreal, will they actually let Isreal play at home?