Soccer

Séamus Coleman says Ireland players lacked ‘pride in the shirt’

Captain was at a loss to explain what had happened in defeat to Luxembourg

Republic of Ireland’s Séamus Coleman after Luxembourg’s Gerson Rodrigues scored the winner. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Emmet Malone's face
Emmet Malone at the Aviva Stadium
Sat Mar 27 2021 - 23:04

Séamus Coleman has described Ireland’s performance in their defeat to Luxembourg as “embarrassing,” saying that the players “need to take a look at themselves,” after failing to “show pride in the shirt”.

The Irish captain looked shocked by the result and the display as he spoke on television shortly after the game finished while accepting a “man of the match” award. He looked uncomfortable about that too and said that while he had to do the interview: “I’ve got no words. It’s nowhere near what we wanted.

“It’s a shocking result,” said the defender. “An embarrassing result and let’s not hide behind anyone else here. That’s on us as players. We should be embarrassed.”

The 32-year-old said that he was at a bit of a loss as to how things had gone so poorly but, he suggested: “As players we need to have a long look at ourselves. You need to have people demanding the ball at times. I don’t think we did that enough. If people are building up on one side, you need people wanting it on the other side and I didn’t hear enough voices out there.

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“Listen, there’s anger, embarrassment (in the dressing room). It’s not good enough. I can’t speak for any other player but it’s about trying to get on the ball, trying to demand it. They (Luxembourg) got the goal, a sucker punch, but I can’t say we deserved anything out of the game either.”

Coleman refused to accept that the World Cup campaign is all but over after such a poor start in the team’s opening two games and insisted the players would have to accept that they had let themselves and others down, endure the criticism but look to bounce back in the autumn as best they can.

“You’ve got to be resilient in this game you’ve got to keep on playing through the storm,” he said. “We have to keep on going and take what’s coming as professionals.

“It’s a tough start to the campaign but and in the autumn we will have to show some pride in the shirt because I didn’t think we showed that tonight.”