Parachuted into the team, green giant Shane duffy was superb in our historic triumph over Italy. Having suffered a life-threatening injury on international duty six years ago, the Derry native knows all about comebacks.
Shane Long’s sensational winner to down the world champions Germany secured his place in Irish sporting history forever but it is Jon Walters’ battling style which has become the symbol of the team.
Fernando Torres, despite having won the Champions League with Cheslea and world and Euro titles with Spain, stands on the brink of his greatest triumph, Euro glory back where it all began.
October, 1974, Dublin. Wavy haired 18-year-old Liam Brady is thrust into the spotlight by player-manager John Giles at a pulsating Dalymount Park and plays his part is one of our finest-ever victories. Brady, Keane, Duff – Martin O’Neill says Jack Grealish is not ready but he wouldn’t be our first teenage star.
It was almost all over. Instead Shane Long’s stoppage-time equaliser capped off a second-half Irish display full of fight and spirit that hasn’t been seen in years, especially at the Aviva Stadium. The Euro dream is still alive, just. Here’s ten talking points from a dramatic week in Euro 2016 qualifying.
Bottom of Bundesliga 2, St Pauli, once dubbed ‘the world’s coolest club’, are in danger of becoming a footballing irrelevance. But the team from the port city of Hamburg have been there before and weathered the stormy waters to survive and prosper.
Few love a party as much as the Brazilians and with the fiesta of music, dance, and colour in full swing this weekend, the nation besotted with football indulges in its other great passion, Carnival. And yet, there are more than a few links between the country’s two great loves.
Call it a World Cup hangover, but the Germans are still feeling a little delicate since their caipirinha-fuelled conquest by the Copacabana. Retirements and injuries have certainly affected ‘Die Mannschaft’ and their performances since the Maracana triumph have been sluggish. A friendly-drubbing at the hands of Argentina was followed up with the nervy win over Scotland, and a shock defeat to Poland. But German football fans don’t necessarily care. They are the world champions. And the country is still basking in the Brazilian glow. The flags remain on cars and outside houses, if a little more ragged now, a bit like Jogi Loew’s squad.
At the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, East Germany were drawn in the same group as the tournament hosts. In their first and only appearance at the finals, the East shocked the watching world by beating the defending European champions.
He’s the darling of the Brazilian national team and the poster-boy for a host nation desperately in need of a World Cup good news story. In Europe, they question if he deserves the hype after a difficult first year at Barcelona but his personality is at odds with the reputation that preceded him. As we saw in last year’s Confederations Cup, Neymar Jr could be about to light up the tournament and live up to the legend that it seems has already been created for him.