COLEMAN PROMISES TO LEARN FROM PARIS POUNDING —
We lost our heads but we learn from it and move on, insists Ireland’s Coleman
SEAMUS COLEMAN has warned his Republic of Ireland team-mates that they will need to play with greater composure if they are to compete with the best in international football.
A much-changed Ireland team lost 2-0 to World Cup qualifiers France in Paris on Monday night — but the margin of victory could have been greater as they repeatedly squandered possession to a technically superior outfit.
Coleman, one of four men in the side at the Stade de France who had started against the same opposition in a hard-fought 2-1 defeat at the Euro 2016 finals, admitted Ireland had not been good enough on the ball this time around to get themselves into the game.
He said: ‘It was a tough night for us. As we know, they are a top team and they will be there or thereabouts in the summer.
‘We knew we had to defend for a lot of the night, which is only normal against a team like that. We did that quite well at times and to concede from a set-piece and another goal — that was maybe a little bit sloppy — is disappointing.
‘We’re just disappointed with how we were on the ball. We were a bit rash, a bit rushed and that goes for the 11 players that were out there tonight. We weren’t composed enough on the ball.
‘We knew it was going to be tough out of possession, but we had a few chances to get the ball down and we lost it sloppily from the likes of throw-ins, and it’s disappointing. The manager made us aware of that and we’ll have to look at it.”
Ireland were ultimately undone — amid a torrential downpour — by strikes from Olivier Giroud and Nabil Fekir inside four minutes at the end of the season half, the latter courtesy of an error by goalkeeper Colin Doyle.
Coleman, who is hoping for better against the USA in Dublin on Saturday, said: ‘We’re not going to point the finger at anyone. Very few of us could come out of there with our heads held high.
‘It’s not just Colin, it was a few of us — myself included — who weren’t good enough on the ball.
‘We’ll take it on the chin. We need to improve and maybe on Saturday we’ll see a little bit more of the ball and show our composure a bit better.’
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Doyle has vowed to put his nightmare moment behind him after getting an unwelcome taste of Champions League final villain Loris Karius’ misery.
The Republic of Ireland goalkeeper allowed Fekir’s shot to squirm from his grasp and into the net — as his side struggled in the wet conditions in Paris — two days after Karius found himself in the firing line on social media following his horror show in Kiev.
Even the more measured reaction to the Liverpool man’s misfortune has seen his continued presence at Anfield called into question, but Doyle —who was making just his third senior appearance for Ireland — was philosophical about the error and vowed to move on.
The 32-year-old Bradford keeper said: ‘Other than the obvious mistake, I was happy with my performance. However, nobody will look at how I did, people will probably just talk about the error.
‘People won’t look at the saves I made, but look, it’s part and parcel of football. Look at the Liverpool lad on Saturday. He made a couple of errors to lose the Champions League and I felt sorry for him.
‘I’m big and strong enough to take it, so I’ll move on.’
Ireland were already trailing 1-0 to Giroud’s strike at the Stade de France when Fekir took aim a minute before the break.
Doyle, who had to wait 10 years and 304 days for his second cap, but only 66 more days for his third, got his hands to the ball, only to see it loop up off his gloves and drop into the net behind him. The keeper, who had already made a series of good saves and went on to make more, acknowledged his error, but revealed he had earned the praise of assistant manager Roy Keane for his resilience after the game. He said: ‘It came through a few bodies, I was unsighted. Look, I should have kept it out, I should have done better. I sort of got two hands on it. ‘I didn’t know where it was, to be honest. I pushed it and it sort of went up. I thought I pushed it wide, but then I looked up around me and saw it come down under the bar. I tried to get it up, but it was too late.
‘You just have to try to forget it. Roy said to me after the game, “Well done because it’s how you recover from mistakes.” He said I did well other than that.
‘Obviously it’s a blatant error. Errors are part and parcel of the game. It’s how you recover from them.
‘Luckily enough, I recovered OK. I tried to get it out of my head, which I did. I’ll move on from it. I can’t dwell on it.’
Doyle got his chance in Paris because of injuries to Darren Randolph, Rob Elliot and Keiren Westwood and is likely to be retained for Saturday’s friendly against the USA, with uncapped duo Conor O’Malley of Peterborough and Bohemians’ Shane Supple providing the back-up.
“We weren’t good enough on the ball — myself included”