Tag style of football

Not the most pleasant football, Yann, but Ireland are top of the pops

The build-up to this one had been quite low-key, the nation not exactly all a-tizz in anticipation of the resumption of our Group D campaign, and with the Swiss being our opponents on Thursday night it was hard enough for us to shift our emotions out of neutral. But then their goalkeeper Yann Sommer stirred it all up with a savage pre-match barb – Ireland, he said, “play a very unpleasant style of football” – and that was it: Bring. ‘Em. On. Ireland has, of course, played a very unpleasant style of football in recent times, but that’s for us to say, as we often have, and quite fruitily too during the darker days of the Trapattoni/O’Neill/Keano spells. But this was Game Five of the new Mick McCarthy era so Sommer was talking through his hosepipe, and Darragh Maloney left it to Damien Duff, Liam Brady and Richie Sadlier to explain why. So, first we were shown lots of clips of Irish players in the new Mick McCarthy era passing the ball to the opposition, and then we were shown lots more clips of Irish strikers in the new Mick McCarthy era not scoring goals.…

Read MoreNot the most pleasant football, Yann, but Ireland are top of the pops