Niall Quinn in studio | Italia 90 reunion, Evan Ferguson's future, FAI perceptions, football's funding problem

Joe Molloy (0:01)

This is an Irish Independent podcast. The Premier League race isn't providing much drama, but thankfully the Champions League is doing its utmost to keep us entertained. Liverpool 15-point runaway leaders at the top of the table in England. Saw their European campaign come to a crashing end at Anfield last night with PSG going through following a dramatic penalty shootout win. Will Stattery here with you, he'd like to be joined in studio by Ronan Mullen. Ronan, hello.

Ronan Mullen (0:29)

Hi, Will.

Joe Molloy (0:30)

Thanks for coming in. I will be joined in studio in a couple of minutes by Niall Quinn. We will be discussing Italia 90, the state of the Irish team under Hymer Hall-Grimson, whether Evan Ferguson can get back on track, and also the issue around funding in Irish soccer generally and the impact that could make. But first, we wanted to reflect on last night's drama at Anfield.

Probably up there with the first leg in terms of drama and talking points, Liverpool getting off to a very hot start, the opposite of how they played in the first leg, peppering the PSG goal, Mo Salah having a couple of really good chances, but not being able to convert. And then a mix up between Canate and Alisson, saw Usman Dembele put PSG ahead after 12 minutes. And then a classic European tie on falls, Liverpool can't make their dominance count in the scoreboard. You have this nagging sense that we could be going to penalties at the end of the day, which we did. And then Gianluigi Donnarumma, a guy who got a fair bit of stick for his inability to save heart if he Elliot's shot last week, steps up in the shootout, saving from Darwin Nunes, saving from Curtis Jones, and then Desiree Dwaye scoring the winner for a 4-1 penalty shootout win. So yeah, there we are. It was some European tie over the two legs.

Ronan Mullen (1:39)

Yeah, very invigorating. You know, you eluded to it in your intro there, and I think we talked about it on and off air that Premier League's not really giving us that on a weekly basis for whatever reason. So yeah, just a really pulsating tie. And yeah, I think the accepted wisdom is that if your team isn't in the penalty shootout, it's really fun to watch. I was actually like, I want this game to be won in normal play because it deserves that ending. But you got the sense, to be fair, like both teams are still going for it, but in the last 10 minutes of extra time, they were almost making plans for the penalty shootout.

Joe Molloy (2:15)

Quite leggy in extra time, because to be fair, it was played, both ties were played at a very frantic pace. There was a lot of energy being expended, and it did look, yeah, as you say, the classic kind of when it gets to 100 minutes, the pace does die a bit of a death. Obviously, PSG had a couple of good chances in extra time as well.

Ronan Mullen (2:32)

But like we talked about Allison last week, and he was good again last night, but were it not for him, this tie would have been over last week, probably. And even in the first half of normal time yesterday, PSG scored. It took like a random intervention from Kanata. Like Allison was never conceding a conventional goal in this tie. It just wasn't going to happen. So after all the aesthetically pleasing build up that PSG had put together over the whatever amount of time, it was the scrappy, ugly goal.

Joe Molloy (3:00)

It was a comically scrappy and ugly goal, because I actually missed the 15 minutes I was just coming home. And so I just switched it on. And then I seen the goal then after after a few minutes. And I was like, that's how they break the deadlock.

Ronan Mullen (3:10)

But straight after that. And this is why XG is a flawed stat, because Alisson's goalkeeping doesn't get credit for on the stat sheet for remember the Dembele one where he knows he's running in one on one with Alisson. So he overthinks that he takes a heavy touch and Alisson smothers it. And then there's the next one where I think Barkela gets slipped through, tries to round the keeper, but doesn't in the end. And just kind of it was a nothing attempt. But PSG had three carbon copy chances to the ones they were creating last week in the first half of normal time. And then you're kind of thinking, oh, this leg is going to adopt the same pattern as the first leg. But in fact, Liverpool's best period of the whole tie was the second half of normal time. And they were brilliant. So for all that they were probably outplayed and PSG deserved to go through, Liverpool could very conceivably have won the game last night.