Yeah, I know – that headline isn't exactly news is it? It's really just what you'd expect an annoying shitebag to do. If I was Lassana Diarra, I'd probably thank God I was born under a lucky star, somehow ended up at Real Madrid despite rarely impressing at Arsenal and Chelsea and stay quiet for the vast majority of the time. That's not the policy the moany windbag adopts and after throwing a range of insults at Ireland that may or may not have included mocking Daniel O'Donnell, declaring U2's last album to be a startling dip in quality and criticising the Irish government's over-reliance on the housing sector for tax revenues, Keith Andrews had enough and took exception to Lass.
I would say that the on-pitch scuffle after the final whistle on Saturday night marred a good night at Croke Park, but having matched the preceding 90 minutes, it was actually refreshing to see a burst of energy from our central midfielders. For most of the game, they were exemplary hosts, making sure France had enough of the ball and lots of time and space. Without revealing what was said, Andrews says it will provide extra motivation for the second leg on Wednesday. So there you go Trap, change your pre-match from "this is your chance to reach a World Cup" to "this is your chance to reach a World cup, you dirty potato munchers" and all of a sudden the whole squad will up their performance 20%.
It's unlikely that the comments will do anything other than have Stephen Hunt running around like a dying wasp and picking up needless yellow cards. There is hope for the Boys In Green but it mainly involves Raymond Domenech recalling David Ginola and Ginola recklessly giving the ball away with 10 seconds to go and us scoring. Ireland did create a few gilt edged chances on Saturday and there's no reason why they won't have a couple more in Paris. Mind you, if Trapattoni is going to persist with ‘the big man providing flick-ons to the small man' tactic, would it be too much to ask to actually have a big man in the role? Kevin Doyle is a good player, but anyone with hair that spiky clearly isn't a modern day Tony Cascarino. France aren't immune to a capitulation on home soil and that's not just a cheap war gag.
Diarra and Andrews in happier times.
- Guus Hiddink is such a good manager that he masterminded Slovenia's late goal just so they'd try to play football in the second leg and Russia would hit them on the counter. Guus you genius! Either that or it wasn't part of the script and the tie is still very much in the melting pot.
- Not for the first time in his career, Nani fails to be an adequate replacement for Ronaldo. Still though, Portugal lead one-nil so will dive and roll around on the ground their way to a draw in Belgrade that sees them past Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- Greece and Ukraine produce possibly the dullest match in history. Hopefully the second leg will be so dull that FIFA intervene and say neither of them are allowed go to a World Cup.
Meanwhile on the undercard, we meet a remarkable man, Yuri Foreman. And not just because he's a boxer called Foreman who doesn't own his own brand of 'lean, mean, fat reducing what is basically a glorified sandwich toaster'. He's combining his career in professional boxing with his training to become a rabbi and with some success obviously. Mazel tov, Mr. Foreman. Knock his head off.