Ladies, Gents.... please!! There's nothing wrong­ with lively debate but can we please leave the text­ writing to texts and not to proper posts like this­ please? And...while I'm at it.... it's­ "should HAVE" and not "should of".­ You gobshites.

Maybe your right, but the playing is so unattractive­ that it just looks plain old bad

Dean O, being Irish also, I wouldn't exactly say­ that Ireland are so bad at football but I do agree that­ good teams do usually play to the lower standard of­ their opposition. Whatever decisions made by a referee­ do affect the outcome of a match but the final score is­ the final score. I don't see the point of saying if­ we had of had this player or we should have had a­ penalty or so and so should have been sent off. We have­ to accept the final score and tonight if we look at the­ statistics we could only manage a draw against a 10 man­ Italian side. My point is that an international team­ should be of the one nationality from manager to­ players. Why name call the opposition when we rely on­ one of their countrymen to take us to the world cup?

Ireland are amazing what a point against the world­ champions!!!! It would be no shock if they win the­ group or push Italy close.

I have a theory about Ireland, and Im Irish so if­ someone is going to insult me for this, please dont say­ Im a from another country. Well here goes. Ireland are­ so bad that when they play a far better team like­ Italy, tonight, their playing is so depressing that its­ almost like its contagious and other teams start to­ play appalingly too

Doylers don't you get it or are you really thick!­ "All the world knows Italians are cheats and dirty­ footballers." So why do Ireland and England have­ to resort to these same cheats to get managers?

We're not ridiculing the italians, we're just­ pointing out the fact, that their frailties are being­ shown up, and that for the benefit of the great­ footballing nation that is Italy, that they maybe look­ into other options, a defence without Cannavaro for a­ start, and more creativity up front. Italy needs a­ talent like baggio, or zola or signori, players that­ can terrorise teams with brilliance, and to be honest­ right now they just dont have that on offer.

wa.irvine go to bed..r best result is a quater­ final..not bad 4 a country with a populaton of 4­ million..and we play honest decent football and are­ resected world wide for it,,the whole world know that­ the italians r CHEATS N dirty footballers..15 yellows n­ 2 reds in 5 matches says enuf,,and shud of bn anoder­ red 2 nite,,after we scored we shud of won so 4 all ur­ sittin back n soakin up r pressure yeah fair enuf..but­ be a man and admit ye nearly got caught out n where­ lucky to draw at the end

While you are all running down Italy you seem to forget­ that half the Irish team are actually Italian.­ Trappatoni? Tardelli? Come on boys, when were these­ ever Irish names! We can't be ridiculing the­ Italians when we ourselves resort to them to try and­ get us to qualify for the World Cup!!!

Round of 16? irvine, i thought you were supposed to­ know something about football. Yet again can you please­ get your facts straight.

markcoyne i also suggest you get a brain instead of­ making stupid accusations and claims.
is it an irish or­ british thing to completely ignore the obvious and be­ so blatantly biased?

hahahahahahaha i'm suuuuuuuuuuuuure doylers, and­ you'd have said the same had it been an irishman­ sent off? no you'd have probably called the italian­ a diving @#$%. get a brain please.

you may have­ dominated possession, but you weren't in control of­ the game... if you even watched the match, you'd­ have seen the italians were quite happy to let the­ irish come at them, and they were more than comfortable­ at the back, hence IN CONTROL.

it was not a red­ card... and although it should have been a penalty, the­ opportunity would never have existed had italy had 11­ men on the pitch. you know this, i know this, anyone­ with an inkling of football knowledge knows this.­ it's a good result for you, but stop milking it and­ chatting bs to justify it.
i suggest you go concentrate­ on how you're going to beat Bulgaria away, as by­ the end of summer you may easily be 3rd in the group,­ playing catch up. good night to you.

Dante...where exactly did I say that italy were not­ deserving of a penalty?? O'Shea was well guilty­ there. and possesion means everything, how the hell do­ you dominate or control a game without the ball? you­ dont! simple as!

34.2% Possession 65.8%
2 Shots 12
1 Shots on­ target 3
1 Saves 0
1 Corners 10
21 Fouls 13
4 Offsides ­ 2
3 Yellow cards 1
1 Red­ cards 0
17 Tackles 22
191 Accurate passes 404
48 Bad­ passes 45

Im sorry but i was so happy that ireland managed to­ draw it would have been an injustice for the italians­ to win considering the amount of cheating they did­ throughout the game.

Firstly the red card is arguable­ i kinda agree it should have been. If you go for a head­ with an elbow up and its unintended generally you will­ just get a clash and thats it think about how hard he­ must have lead with that elbow to draw that amount of­ blood , i mean seriously he had to have lead there is­ no way pazzini would have drawn blood if he had just­ had a trailing elbow.

Secondly even though italy were­ down to ten men the ref was clearly on the italian­ side. There were two penalty claims , one that was­ pretty clearly a penalty and the other where hunt was­ hit by buffon was 50 50 apart from that how many times­ did the italians fall over , dive or claim a injury to­ get a freekick , every time there was a contest for a­ header it was automatically a italian free kick .­

Finally the italians showed there cheating ways­ further any decision against them they flocked the ref­ , cannavaro feigned injury to waste some time at the­ end and get the italian defense a rest and best of all­ any time Steven Hunt got a ball on the wing and ran at­ them they always tripped him and stopped any irish­ attacking movement by cheating.

Anyways yea a point is­ good but should have been a win , italians are the­ italians they will cheat , steal , dive or bribe there­ way to a victory i hope they dont make it to the world­ cup they are a disgrace to honest football.

Exactly my point irvine, Dante seemed to think that­ Italy controlled the game, its a tad hard to control­ the game without the ball. I think a reading test may­ be more approproate in these forums in your case.

Hi EGG. Possession means nothing in 11 against 10. Of­ course 11 man will enjoy more ball possession.
Even in­ ten In the first half could have been 2-0 for Italy­ with Pepe hitting the side of the net
The real stats­ are: An inexistent red card in the first few minutes of­ the game. From then on the premises of the game had­ been altered
Apart the possesion, how many real chances­ did they have with all the possession they enjoyed?
Yes­ I agree there was a penalty for Ireland, but I also saw­ one in favour of Italy when Chiellini was hugged in the­ Ireland penalty box, how mush of a shirt do you want?­ or you didn't see it? Also in that case it would­ have been 2-0
A 10 man team will let you have all the­ possesion you want, their aim is not to let you­ score.
good on Ireland they did.

dante and anseo wat game where ye watching 2nite??cudnt­ of bn ire v itly anways....ireland clearly­ dominated..sendin off was correcthe led with his­ elbow..canevarro shud of bn snt off s well....deserved­ a second yellow..dirty italians a shadow of d former­ side..minimal contact frm irish players on sereval­ ocassions on italians go down like they were hit by a­ bus...