The Irish boys really have to dust themselves off, because a second defeat of Euro 2012 would leave them out of the running. Ireland were outpolayed 3-1 in their opening match by a clinical and ruthless Croatia. It was not a great performance by the team and coach Giovanni Trapattoni must still be questioning what went wrong. Ireland had gone into the European Championships on the the back of 14 match unbeaten streak and eleven of them with clean sheets. So they had the reputation of being very difficult to beat, and with their spirit and determination could well have caused some surprises in Group C. Now they need one of the biggest surprises of all, as they really need to take maximum points off Spain, a nation they have beaten just four times before in our history. So it is a big uphill struggle for Ireland, so how do they do it?
A draw may keep us in with a chance going into the final round of group matches, so it may be a position of parking the bus. Dropping those two banks of four players back to restrict the space that the Spaniards will get. Ireland really were not that threatening going forward against Croatia, and withTrapattoni not being a man to hit the panic button and change formation from his favoured 4-4-2, defence may be the only way for Ireland. So after such a disappointing start to Euro 2012, there could yet be a huge highlight to come from them, if they can take something from Spain. They will be second best in possession, they know that, so it is going to be about defensive discipline and getting back to that hard work, cutting out mistakes which saw them pick up so many clean sheets in their run up to this moment. Can the boys pull things together on the day? Their most likely route to goal will be LA Galaxy striker Robbie Keane, but does he have the support on the break to make it count?
Spain salvaged a 1-1 draw against Italy in their opening match, and it was a game which they really didn’t hit their heights. They blamed a very poor pitch, which was dry and really not up to par, so their passing game wasn’t at its best. Still, they controlled all the possession against the Italians but strangely Vicente del Bosque decided to use Cesc Fabregas as a forward as opposed to putting in a recognised striker from the start. That really made the job easy for the Italian defence so the coach may think twice about repeating that, and could call on Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente to add an extra dimension to their forward play. Spain were content with their point in the end, knowing that that was probably their hardest match out of the way, and a win against the group outsiders, Ireland, will get them comfortably back on track.
Spain are still favourites to win Euro 2012 outright, even though they haven’t given us a glimpse of their best. They are still the masters at controlling games through their short, passive passing game, looking for that killer ball to tear open a defence. They will get opportunities against Ireland, even though the Irish will probably sit back a lot. So it may be a game of patience from the off for Spain, trying to find the space to break them down. But it is unlikely at the end of the day that Ireland will be able to hold out for ninety minutes against the Spaniards. There is just too much movement, too many options and versatility in the Spanish squad to keep them down. They will have used that draw against Italy in their opener as a platform to get better through the tournament. The real Spain will surely show up.
Score: Spain to win 3-0
0 comments:
Post a Comment