Henry has been very complimentary, but we still haven’t had THAT chat
I’ve never got the chance to tell my BBC colleague Thierry Henry just how I feel about his moment of cheating in Paris...
THE defeat to France in Paris seven years ago was one of the worst nights of my career. No Irish player in that side, and no Irish man or woman will ever forget Thierry Henry’s handball or the name of the referee — Martin Hansson — who failed to spot it.
Henry reckoned it was instinctive, not cheating. The referee and his officials should have seen it.
Of course it still doesn’t help watching it back afterwards, does it? When you see the clip, all you can think is, how did the referee and linesman miss it?
The first time I saw Thierry Henry afterwards was a few years ago when he spotted me in London, came over and shook my hand and we exchanged the usual pleasantries. I was tempted but decided not to say anything.
He was at the BBC launch for the Euro 2016 coverage and we had a brief chat. Then, last week, after the Sweden game, he was heading into the studio with Gianluca Vialli and Rio Ferdinand and came over to talk to me and said how impressed he had been with Jeff Hendrick. He was very complimentary about Ireland.
But we still haven’t had the handball conversation.
So if I had been in the BBC studio in Paris with him tonight no doubt Gary Lineker would have been asking the inevitable questions about that night and looking for me to have a dig at him.
But it’s not to be. The BBC are not covering the game live on telly, so I will be with Radio 5 Live in Lyon. I think I’d rather be in the stadium, than the studio, so it’ll have to wait for another time.
At the time, going out of the 2010 World Cup in such a cruel way hurt. But it quickly just became another game, because straight after the match we went back to our clubs and back to playing football.
Losing to Spain in South Korea in 2002 was probably worse because I missed a great chance during the game and then missed a penalty in the shoot-out.
My errors had a direct cause on the end result and at that time it affected me badly. Reflecting on it now, to miss out on a World Cup at that stage of my career with Ireland was a massive blow for me personally.
It was my last chance to play in a World Cup and a major tournament and I would have loved it in South Africa. We all would have loved it over there. And the fact France imploded in that event and did nothing just made it worse.
Considering how well we played in Paris that night, and the performance everyone put in, we deserved so much more.
It was not the greatest of French teams but we had to get a win in Paris, which of course we did over the 90 minutes, and what happened with the handball goes down as one of the worst moments in our football history.
There are players still in the squad who played that night. They might not start in today’s match but they will have told the other players about the experience. And the players will have talked about getting revenge.
There is still a lot of bitterness but it won’t be playing in the players’ minds. This is another game to them, but the supporters won’t see it like that. Every Irish fan will take great delight in putting France out.
And it can be done. We have proved we can play against the big teams, take the game to them and get a result. France have not been at it. They have the players but — like Roy Hodgson — I don’t think Didier Deschamps knows what his best team is yet.
He has rested players and looked for a spark, but apart from Dimitri Payet, no one is performing close to their top level. That is actually a worry coming into this game.
The French will cause more problems than Italy did but they have not been tested defensively at all and I think we will test them. Albania stifled them and caused problems, as did Romania at times. France were not at their best against Switzerland and couldn’t break them down.
We have players bang in form who can cause some problems to their back four. And the 4-4-2 system, with a diamond, works for us. It is the way forward.
The team needed freshening up for the Italy game. Martin O’Neill made some brave decisions, and took one or two gambles, and they paid off.
No doubt he will be tempted to freshen it up again. We have not had as long as France to recover from the Italy game which will have taken a lot out of the players, emotionally and physically, especially in that humidity and searing temperatures.
The pitch in Lille was awful and it was like a sauna when the roof was closed. You couldn’t breathe when you got in the stadium and to get a late goal in that heat was all the more remarkable.
When we heard the roof had been closed, I didn’t think too much about it. But when I got to my seat in the press box, the heat and humidity hit me. It was beyond anything I’ve experienced before and the players will never have played in anything like it.
Every player who started against Italy will feel they have done enough to start against France. I wouldn’t disagree.
RICHARD KEOGH and Shane Duffy were both excellent, James McClean’s work-rate was incredible and Daryl Murphy caused the Italian defenders problems, backed into them, linked well with Shane Long and pushed us up the pitch.
James McCarthy proved that his best position is in front of the back four, and it’s where he wants to play, while Jeff Hendrick is having a brilliant tournament. Premier League teams must have taken notice.
They will all feel fit and the adrenaline hit of playing against France, being a part of this tournament, being a part of Irish football history, will get them through.
As well as Robbie Brady did playing off the strikers, and of course he scored that wonderful goal, I think Martin will be tempted to recall Wes Hoolahan with Robbie returning to left-back.
It was the right decision to start Hoolahan on the bench. He looked tired against Belgium and hardly involved but he was the spark we needed from a substitute.
I liked, too, how he reacted to his
miss just before the winning goal. Like every Irish fan I thought that was it. We had waited the whole night for that one big chance and you would normally expect Wes to tuck that one-on-one away.
But he kept his composure and just a couple of minutes later put in a wonderful cross for Robbie to score. We all know that is the quality he can produce.
The only worry is that if Wes isn’t on the bench, who can Martin turn to if we need a moment of magic to get a late goal?