STEPHEN BRADLEY HAS not given up hope of salvaging Shamrock Rovers’ Champions League dream despite a 2-0 defeat to Sparta Prague in the first-leg of their second-round qualifying tie.
The Hoops boss lamented Neil Farrugia’s missed chance in the first half before a mistake playing out from the back led to the visitor’s taking the lead.
“At 2-0 the tie is not over. If you get the first goal, anything is possible.
“We will go there to try and win the game. We know they are a good team but if we perform like we did tonight, anything is possible.
“I thought we were excellent, playing against a top level team,” he continued.
“On another night we take those opportunities and you might have a different outcome, but at that level (Sparta) will get chances and usually top teams take them..
“But Neil was brilliant. He should have scored early on and that was the only fault, but he gave us power and pace and he was excellent.
“He should have scored and didn’t need to take the touch. He should have put it in first time. At this level you need to take your chances as they are really small margins.”
Prague head coach Lars Friis was understandably pleased with the result and the application of his players given they are still in pre-season.
“We set up against a team set-up really well by Stephen Bradley. They caused us problems,” he said.
“The way we treated the ball, I was quite happy. Only when we made mistakes did they become dangerous.
“The result is a good one. We are halfway there. It was exactly as difficult as we expected.
“Also, the picture of the game. We thought we would have a lot on the ball and take care of the counters and defensively we did really well.
“Today, the most important thing is to win, that’s really important, but also to get minutes for the players.
“We have not achieved anything yet.”
I think trap is wanting to be sacked. Stupid playing Green in midfield before McCarthy. What sort of mind games is he playing with brady? bizzar
I think your spot on Galway.
Since we went to Poland the players picked have been stupid.
Bringing players who don’t have clubs.
Sure theirs players in the LOI that are better suited to the team than what he picks.
Still baffles me why he won’t get over himself and give Anthony stokes a call up.
If ibrahimavich is up for this match he will absolutely ravage that defense .
I think Trap has made a huge mistake in his selection and think he is the most incompetent manager we have has since Stan.
That said, I hope I am eating these words in about 14 hours time and I will allow anyone who wants to remind me of this comment!
Hes the only manager we have had since Stan…..
Any team that has Robbie Keane as your inspirational leader is doomed to fail! A great goal scoring record, but the most whiniest, dishonest disgraceful person to wear an Irish jersey in years. Might barely be good enough to warrant a place in the pitch, but definitely should not be captain.
Changes from the top down necessary to turn things around. There definitely is an alright team with the current crop of players that are declared ‘Irish’
1-1 final score put money it
hope youre right. A draw would be like a win for us!
Sweden 5 ireland 0. Put ur gaff on it.
I think I pretty much agree with the majority by saying that Trap needs to go. However, I hate to admit it but Alex Ferguson couldn’t make a decent team out of that squad. Very poor all round.
Warren
If the history of football has shown us anything is that the most talented players do not always win, from time to time it can be the less talented players who have the better team spirit that wins.
Looking at Ireland and Sweden I would be of the opinion that the latter have both the most talented players & the better team spirit.
It’s going to be a close match, there’ll be no more than 10 goals in it (in Sweden’s favour).
I think the problem has gone beyond the players not being good enough. After the hammering by Germany, Robbie Keane more or less said the result didn’t matter as we were always playing for 2nd place. Yet Sweden had the belief to come back from 4 nil down to draw 4 all. I Just cannot see how Trappatoni can inspire these players. Time for him to go regardless of the result tonight.
well