Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

but Kelleher had other saves to make apart from the excellent one to his left. He had a few down his throat and one that he scrambled and setup for a rebound to a Portuguese but he squared instead of shot and it went to an Irish man instead

I guess the discrepancy might be the likes of the weakish shot he fumbled around the 41st minute, which led to a scramble and a succession of corners - definitely goes down as a shot on target, but may not credit him with a save.

I got the impression Portugal went through these stages-

1. It’s only Ireland, doesn’t matter really don’t need to go full throttle will qualify anyway
2. Concede the first goal- had Ronaldo looking disappointed- but the vibe was these Irish lads will fold. Looked like the Portugal goal was coming
3. Second goal for Ireland stunned Portugal completely then they suddenly realised they were been not just beaten and outfought- but embarrassed.
4. Then the embarrassment led to frustration - and we know what happened after that with the fella who said prematch “Ireland was lovely”. Ended up getting needled by a dentist.

A shot on target can be a goal, save or it can be blocked by hitting a defender or one of your own players (or a beach ball!).

Last night, there were definitely a few blocked shots in the box although I can distinctly remember Kelleher making more than one save. The one he spilled and then recovered quickly and then he caught a long range effort which maybe gets classified as catching a cross rather than a save. Who knows.

I just hope the players aren't gassed come Sunday. They all looked absolutely wrecked at the end of the match.

If I remember they had a late equaliser in the last game to win the group by 1 pt, we drew with Poland twice which killed us

Being disappointed with only drawing against England and Poland hammering Turkey home and away, those were the days

Substitute Ireland for Portugal and for Ireland Substitute Armenia, Georgia, Luxembourg, hell, any country that doesn’t speak English and you have the reason why we rarely qualify for tournaments.

For some bizarre reason, our players completely disrespect all opposition they don’t recognize from the Champions league. Even much bigger countries whose national sport is football.

Going back to the famous Macedonia 3-2 loss in 1997 did we learn our lesson? No, we doubled down on the arrogance: the worst player in training after that had to wear the “I had a Macedonia” T shirt until the next session. This was a team with Ian Harte as centre back! What happens? We are one minute away from Euro 2000 when a last minute goal puts us out scored by, eh…., Macedonia.

Surely we learned our lesson then? Naw, Keith O’Neill was banished from the squad because it was definitely all his fault.

Time and time again we struggle against what we think are “minnows” when we are the minnows. If HH can coax 80% of the effort in every game that was put in last night he should have a job for life and we would not only qualify for at least every second tournament but we would do well out there.

What is it Giles used to say “honesty of effort is a minimum requirement” Paul O’Connell says something on the line of “hard work requires no talent”. It should be tattooed on players arms before they get selected.

Hopefully the U17s do a job now as well

In all my years watching the Irish - a few games stand out for where we took on top teams and bossed them.

One was vs Russia in 1988. One was away to Holland when we went 2 - 0 up away in 2001, eventually drew 2-2. And the third was away to England, I think it was a 1-1 draw in the end but we just peppered their goal at one point for about 15 minutes, was unreal.

Yeah that was a great performance.

A generation of Irish players at their peak: Duff, Keane, Given, O’Shea etc. They hit a wall in 2012 when they were just a little too old and got the worst draw of all time.

If we’d qualified in France’s place for South Africa we’d have done a hell of a lot better than they did!

Back then I wouldn't have even seen us as a level below Spain. They were a bit of a basket case then.

U17s into the last 16 after penalties following 1-1 draw against Canada. Switzerland next.

Last night was my first Ireland match since 1995 (a 3-1 loss to a Toni Polster inspired Austria) 😬

It was also my two young fellas first ever live football match so a memorable night all round.

I went to a bunch of games in the late 80's to mid 90's with my Dad..…he's now unfortunately in the latter stages of dementia so there was a few mixed emotions as I guided my lads to our very good seats on the halfway line (I won 4 tickets in a competition I can't remember entering.....it was the missus's first Ireland match too)

The atmosphere was decent up to kick off but after 10 mins of Portugal knocking the ball around it died a bit..…but it was quickly apparent that they hadn't a clue to break down a low block and the atmosphere ramped back up as Ireland looked dangerous on the break.

Anyway I won't bore the arse off everyone with a minute by minute commentary but some alternative 'highlights' -

• Kelleher completely ignoring Ramos trying to hurry things up by giving him a ball to restart. It happened a couple of times before Ramos lost the head and whacked it into the crowd 😂
• There was a fella and his girlfriend sitting next to us who didn't seem to have an interest in either Ireland or Portugal.....only Ronaldo. He was wearing a special edition Utd jersey from the Champions League final in Moscow (with Ronaldo on the back)....he went pale when he got sent off and spent the rest of the game sniffling into his girlfriend's shoulder.
• The Azaz double tackle in the first half...left two Portuguese rolling around on the ground and took the yellow card like a boss
• Seamus Coleman's performance was amazing….was worried when Leao came on but he didn't give him a sniff

Anyone know if Portugal v Armenia is being shown anywhere? Wouldn't mind having it on the laptop if Rte news were showing it.