Joey Barton believed that Belgium’s victory over Ireland had the potential to turn into the most lopsided rout of Euro 2016.
Belgium enjoyed a 3-0 victory over Martin O’Neill’s men on Saturday afternoon, turning Ireland’s qualification quest into the steepest of uphill tasks.
After a goalless first half in which it appeared as though Ireland were happy to play for a draw, Marc Wilmots’ side kicked into gear after the break and began punishing Ireland’s tentative tempo-upping.
The opening goal came from a lightning quick counter-attack and once the second arrived via the head of Axel Witsel, there was only one direction the game was going to go.
And Joey Barton, on punditry duty for TV3, believes that it was a combination of a naive gameplan and lack of quality in personnel that resulted in the heavy defeat, the joint heaviest of the tournament.
“You’re hindered by the players you’ve got at your disposal,” Barton said.
“John O’Shea is no spring chicken. You look at your central defensive partnership of O’Shea and Clark. O’Shea was a part of a Sunderland side that conceded 62 goals in 38 games in the Premier League last year and Ciaran Clark obviously of Aston Villa, was bottom of the pile… 76 goals conceded by Aston Villa in 38 games.
“Then you’ve got Randolph behind that who’s second choice at West Ham, Seamus Coleman who’s not had the best season. Everton’s defence has been a huge problem for them.
“So you look at it and think ‘how can we sit back and absorb pressure?’ Certainly against a front four of Lukaku, de Bruyne, Carrasco and Hazard. It’s eventually going to cost you. It’s eventually going to result in what I felt was… At 3-0 you were thinking this could go on to be four or five and be the highest score of the tournament.
“The gameplan had to have been wrong. If you put that kind of responsibility on a defence that you know is not going to be able to do that because, if it can’t do it at Premier League level, what chance has it got against a front four of that calibre?
“It was poor execution. They got back, got into shape but they never disrupted them. You never saw an Irish player going to compete.
“We criticised Turkey last night for a very similar performance. I thought it was abject and I think, if you’re Ireland and you think in this moment and time that you can put in the same level of performance against Italy in a few days time and you’ll get through, I think they’re going to get another reality check.”
