Martin O’Neill expressed concern over the player’s availability for the Belgium game on Monday and it is looking increasingly likely that the Stoke player will be ruled out of Saturday’s game in Bordeaux after sitting out Wednesday’s training session in Versailles.
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Belgium cannot afford any mistakes against Ireland in their second Euro 2016 Group E match on Saturday if they are to make up for the disappointment of their opening loss to Italy, striker Divock Origi has said.
O’Neill admitted that he was disappointed to concede an equaliser with less than 20 minutes remaining, but added that he was “thrilled” with his team overall. “We will play this game according to our abilities and not look at the other players too much”.
“Of course the goal deflates you and there is disappointment in the dressing room, but I don’t think the players should be downhearted with their performance. He was one of the best and he was also very good in qualification because I saw some matches and I think he will be the man [to stop]”, Bjorn told us.
“It’s going to be an important game for us”.
“We know that we’re going to have a hard game against the Italians anyway but they had three or four chances in the game to score the other night and didn’t take them”.
“If we finish a couple more of them off in the next couple of games…We’ve shown that we can hurt teams”.
“I thought they were magnificent in the game, played some really great football”.
He said: “Belgium are a very, very unsafe side”.
– Republic of Ireland have never scored more than one goal in a game at the Euros.
“Belgium are a very, very unsafe side”. Whatever you say, the little lad for Chelsea – Hazard – is a world class player who can beat people.
However, with Ireland hoping to build on their 1-1 draw versus Sweden, O’Neill insists that the quality within the Belgium squad makes them a unsafe proposition.
“James McClean comes into it”, said O’Neill, when asked about coping without Walters.
To their credit, Sweden responded and eventually forced their way back into the game when the unfortunate Ciaran Clark headed Ibrahimovic’s 71st-minute cross into his own net, but Coleman believes he and his team-mates have put down a marker ahead of their forthcoming fixtures.
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“I’m not sure what they are feeling”.
