JOSH CULLEN SAID Ireland had no excuses for both the performance and result in defeat to Greece in their Euro 2024 qualifier tonight.
Ireland fell to a 2-1 loss and were outplayed for most of the game, in spite of a 10-day training camp in Turkey which went according to plan.
“We are very disappointed, we’ve got to be better than that. It’s as simple as that. It hurts right now. It’s going to hurt tonight. But we need to pick ourselves up and go again on Monday [against Gibraltar.]
“We have to take account as players. We need to look at ourselves, there is no excuses we can make. The game started and they were on top, they had a lot of set pieces and we had to defend, then we go behind and we do well to get back in the game. Then we probably shoot ourselves in the foot again just after half time. Then it’s always going to be difficult to break them down after that. Disappointing night, we just have to go again.”
Cullen was the anchor of an Irish midfield that was utterly overwhelmed. The issue, he said, came down to one of spacing between the Irish players as they were picked apart by Greece.
“At this level if we’re not…how can I best put it, if the distances are too big and we are not doing things together and we get caught in between, then teams with players like that can punish you. We need to take responsibility for that and we need to be better.
“They are obviously picking up good positions themselves. We need to be better at combating that, it’s as simple as that. We are not pointing fingers at anyone, we just need to look at it and go again.”
Cullen was one of 14 members of the Irish squad who hadn’t played a game since the Championship season ended on 8 May, but he dismissed any link between that ring-rust and tonight’s result.
“Not really. We have had good preparations, we have had – I know it’s not the same – we have had good practice matches, we prepared well and we made sacrifices over the last month to make sure we are in the best condition we can be. It would be easy put that excuse out, but as players we need to take responsibility. We prepared well and we weren’t good enough tonight.”