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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Brian Kerr's comments on Ireland v France described as 'very strange' and 'petty' by fans

Many people were impressed with Ireland's performance against France, but Brian Kerr does not appear to have been one of them.

The former Ireland manager said the Boys in Green were "a bit better" in the match, but said at the end of the day that they lost 1-0.

He told Virgin Media after the Euro 2024 qualifier: "In the main we had very little of the ball. Our only threat was down the right hand side with Chiedozie Ogbene when he got the ball. A 1v1 with Theo Hernandez, he caused a fair bit of trouble.

READ MORE: Ireland pondering another harsh truth as Pavard screamer gives France victory

"Overall, I thought France controlled the game very, very well until the last maybe 15 minutes. Ireland opened up a little bit, they were quite defensive up until then.

"The shape was generally 5-4-1 with Evan Ferguson back deep in his own half picking up Camavinga, but as the game went on and we were still one goal behind, we gave away another soft goal again, trying to build it up across the back when Josh Cullen had the ball and made a poor choice of a pass to Jason Knight, intercepted by Pavard, who smacked it into the net.

"Another shot from outside the box from a turnover, but late on we had a fair bit of a go and Maignan was forced into a fantastic save from Collins from a header, which is kind of typical with what happened to Ireland many times in recent years, dependent on a centre half, usually Shane Duffy or John Egan to get us a goal when we needed one. It was kind of battle and bite late on with us."

He added: "The end of the story is we lost 1-0 to France. That's three times in a row they've come to Dublin and we've got no points and we have to go to Greece. No matter what spin Stephen puts on it, we got beaten in the match and had very little possession until the last few minutes.

"Their goalkeeper had one save to make, our goalkeeper made two good saves, he was well beaten on the goal, maybe three saves and that was it.

France's Adrien Rabiot with Jayson Molumby of Ireland (©INPHO/Ben Brady)

"We've got to go on now and win matches in the group."

But not too many fans agreed with Kerr's view, with one tweeting: "This is petty from Kerr. It’s France for god sake, arguably the best national side with the best player in the world, vs a championship team. Give Kenny a break."

Another commented: "Jaysus thats an awful take from Kerr. Just comes across as a bitter man."

Someone else said: "Very strange match analysis, Kerr clearly has some issue with Kenny that clouds his views every game."

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