One of the most famous nights in Irish football history was achieved by a mediocre team performance, according to L’Equipe.
The French sports’ newspaper have garnered a reputation for being tough markers when it comes to player ratings and they were no different for Ireland’s historic 1-0 win over Italy in the final game of Group E.
Here's @dionfanning from Lille on one of the greatest night's in Irish football history https://t.co/kplMCGL8Fr
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 22, 2016
Sure, Italy fielded a severely weakened team and although Ireland were spirited and passionate throughout the game, they didn’t create a lot of clear-cut chances for most of its duration, aside from the penalty shouts that were ignored by the referee.
Well, those penalty claims didn’t go unnoticed by L’Equipe, it seems, as they awarded referee Ovidiu Hategan a lacklustre four out of ten for his officiating.
Italy also rated poor across the board with Alessandro Florenzi and Federico Bernardeschi deemed to be slightly more terrible than the rest of the team, earning a three apiece.
As for the Boys In Green, goalscoring hero Robbie Brady was awarded the highest mark with seven while Shane Long was at the other end of the spectrum with four. The rest of the team were given fives and sixes while Martin O’Neill received a somewhat disappointing six for arguably the biggest win of his international management career.
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