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Dublin: 12 °C Sunday 26 May, 2013

‘Why not?’ — Trap insists mission is still possible despite set-back

The Italian said Ireland will now aim for six points against Spain and Italy over the course of the next week.

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Damian Duff (left) and Sean St Ledger look dejected at the final whistle. Pic: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

IRELAND MANAGER Giovanni Trapattoni insists all is not lost despite his side’s damaging Euro 2012 defeat to Croatia tonight.

Mario Mandzukic hit a brace and Everton’s Nikica Jelavic also got on the scoresheet as Slaven Bilic’s side ran out 3-1 winners in Poznan.

The Irish must now pick themselves up for a daunting trip to Gdansk on Thursday to face world and European champions Spain, before a group finale against heavyweights Italy.

“Now we have only point behind Spain and Italy, Croatia is three but now we have, another important game, now we look about to win against Spain. Why not? And also Italy.”

Asked by RTÉ’s Tony O’Donoghue if he’d change his strategy for the meeting with Vicente del Bosque’s side he answered: “No , it is not tactical. We have to show more more personality, more determination.”

Ireland conceded the opening goal to Croatia within three minutes of the kick-off and Trap admitted the set-back hit his players hard.

“I think the first little mistake because , this ball after two minutes put us in a very bad situation, psychologically also. And take second goal, two metres offside. I don’t know, I said to the referee but they dominated the first half, they had a goal, more possession of the ball and in this moment they dominated the midfield.”

The Italian now faces the task of motivating his side to take on two of the continent’s aristocrats over the next week but he insists the Boys in Green were not overawed by their tournament bow this evening.

“No no. I think no because we had the mentality right yesterday and I saw the team right. But maybe this first goal after two minutes put us in a situation very, very inferior.”

‘We gave away sloppy goals’ – St Ledger rues mistakes

Match Report: Mandzukic on the double for Croatia

In pictures: Ireland humbled by Croatia in Poznan

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Comments (50 Comments)

  • Spain and Italy must be shitting themselves!

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  • Very disappointing tonight but not unexpected. I’m still going to enjoy the next two games though. COME ON IRELAND!!

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  • ******
    Ireland beat Spain in miracle game and then draw with Italy: Ireland , 4 points

    Italy draw with Croatia as well: Italy , 3 points

    Spain draw with Croatia : Croatia 5 points, Spain , 2 points
    Adrian, Adrian , wake up,
    *********
    Dream over, its monday morning.

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  • My heart bleeds for the players. But we were lucky to get this far. Let’s call a spade a spade and enjoy what we have. The best supporters in the world
    We lost. But I’m so proud to be a paddy….

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  • We need a new song…

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  • We just have to beat the World/Euro cup holders and see where we are then…one match at a time sweet gilesy!

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  • John 10/06/12 #

    We were not unlucky, and the ref did not screw us, those are just the typical BS excuses of losers. We were crap! We stepped up out of our weight division and it showed. We have no world class players and our best players are 5 years past their best. When a guy who can’t even make the Leicester City first team starts for Ireland and is our only goalscorer things are bad!

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    • Your right there John, theres no one in the squad to take it by the scruff of the neck. We’ve got a midfield with no flair or guile. At times the back four were pinging the ball at each other like it was a hot potato. At least under Jack he recognised the squads abilities and played accordingly. We gave them so much time and space.

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  • That was piss poor

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  • We need Paul McGrath back.

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  • It all seems pretty hopeless, but vs. Spain, I’d drop O’Shea, McGeady, Whelan & Doyle for Kelly, McLean, Gibson & Walters. Might give us a bit more…’oomph’, maybe. He needs to change it up somehow, or it’ll be embarrassing.

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  • Mojo is one of these that jumps on the bandwagon and doesn’t know what he is in about. A foul… Maybe. It’s not offside if the ball comes of the opposition. Forget the sob stories and move on. Biggest problem is spain may have learned their lesson not to play without a striker. Good night
    .

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    • MojoRise 11/06/12 #

      Actually ur the fool maybe. U obviously new here or u would know I don’t jump on band wagons. Not that I need to explain myself 2 u.

      The second goal, the irish defender was fouled and that’s why the ball skidded off him. 3rd goal was unlucky. It was one of those nights they had 7 or 8 good chances and got 3 goals. We had 4 maybe 5 decent chances we got 1. Man united often have 40 great chances and somedays the ball just won’t end up in the net. It’s unusual to get 3 goals from so few chances… Anyway it’s history…. I never said the irish team were great but what’s the point beating them up here with ur negative comments

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  • So easy to kick fellas when they’re down. Beaten by a couple of flukey goals and some poor refereeing decisions, they weren’t played off the park by any means. Some sloppy defending and they didn’t create enough chances but it’s no disgrace being beaten by the team ranked #8 in the world. We’ll get another couple of nights out yet. Fans were outstanding

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    • well were ranked 18 which is great for such a small country. Something us Irish have to learn is you gotta work with what you have

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    • We were over optimistic, people chose to ignore the facts and if you dared to be realistic you’d have probably gotten a nice helping of red thumbs and negative responses.

      So you’re right, it’s unfair and a bit late to go slamming trap and the team now.

      That said, we weren’t beaten by fluky goals and ref decisions. It was probably more of a fluke that weren’t finished off by the end of the first half.

      Every time they had the ball it felt threatening, every time we had it we looked lost and disorganised.

      I’m not disappointed in traps system or our average players. We can all parade about McClean not playing or subs playing in odd positions.

      I’m disappointed that we bottled it and threw away the very features that could have possibly got us out of the group, ie healthy confidence, organisation, discipline and high morale.

      The pressure is off now, and we are genuine true underdogs from here on in so hopefully we can perform a miracle against Spain.

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  • They scrope into the competition at the last minute so how do they expect to be good enough to win against teams much better than them.Two more losses and their on their way home again!

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  • Euro vision – Nil point. Euro Football – Nil Point. Euro Union – Nil Point. All the signs are there folks. So long and thanks for all the roads.
    Or we could mix it up – Let the squad sing next year, let those two buffoons Jedward run the economy (not that you’d notice) and keep 11 of the Lester house goons for the pitch (they have been running in circles for the past 4 years so are match fit).

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  • God Bless, it is hard rubbish to watch, if you still have hope for Ireland then Croatia must think they will win it

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  • Ah well. At least Cork beat Kerry!

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  • Mojorise
    Why?

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  • Falling apart at home and abroad !!!

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  • Ireland don’t have sufficient talent on the pitch, its that simple. Duff, Given, O’Shea, were great players but aren’t anymore, No one could fault their efforts for Ireland. Dunne and Keane can still pull out a world class performance but inconsistently, the rest are simply not at the highest level of football, a few may get there in time but none are there yet and in previous tournaments we had 8 out of 11 playing regularly for top club teams, Jack’s team was on paper nearly as good as the then English team on paper, we just don’t have the talent, we were very lucky to qualifiy and apart from that one game in France and Italy in Bari have never shown an ability to break down teams with a cohesive attacking play, its completely hopeless they way they played last night, defend clear the ball lose possession defend again, hope for something to turn up, no ability to attack and tilt the pressure onto the other side. Its important to support the team and they are a great bunch of lads but it is also deluded to ignore reality and act like our worst caricuture, drunken bufoons shouting about greatness in the face of a reality which is clearly to the contrary. Short of at least 4 world class players we aren’t capable of competition at this level, consistently we don’t have one. But we are right to be proud if you look at other teams like wales and scotland we have consistently out performed them we’re just not capable of competing at the very highest level of international football.

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  • Let’s face it… Trap is mad for Cox!

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  • The man is senile and deluded, time for him to go and start again for world cup.

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  • jrbmc 10/06/12 #

    Maybe it is time for a change , 10
    Years on is Roy are only option now ? Possibly ….

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  • Why is anyone wasting their time with this?
    Moments of brilliance but far too few.
    What’s wrong with concentrating of what we do do well?
    Not this.

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  • No point sticking with Trap at this stage.. complete failure tonight with his methods.

    Wonder would Roy Keane be available to take over for last 2 games, might get enough points to get through then.

    You know it makes sense people!

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  • I thought John o Shea was rubbish last night and thinking about it Alex ferguson does not drop you for no reason .I thought it was sad the way the Irish fans were singing after the whistle blew .we were like drunken fools

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