Andrews slams ‘disgraceful’ Diarra
The Blackburn Rovers player was hunched over dejectedly after the final whistle when Diarra approached and Andrews automatically thought that his opponent’s intention was shake his hand.
Instead, the Real Madrid player said something which Giovanni Trapattoni claimed later was insulting to the Irish nation and the result was some angry scenes, with Andrews and Richard Dunne particularly incensed.
“I don’t want to say exactly what he said,” Andrews explained yesterday. “He knows what he said. It was a disrespectful comment which probably typifies them, to be honest.”
Andrews admitted his “head went a little bit” before he managed to collect himself and calm down and it was clear that the incident still rankled even after the benefit of a night spent cooling off.
“You don’t really expect if from a fellow professional. It’s a massive two-legged tie, it’s very pivotal and crunch time in the tie. It’s only halfway finished and for a person to come out with something like that, it’s very disappointing.
“All our lads are aware of it so we’ll see what happens on Wednesday.”
Were the comments indicative of a lack of respect for Ireland?
“To be honest, I don’t know. They should (respect Ireland) after last night if they did not before. They were certainly put through their paces, shown what we have. We have fantastic spirit throughout the team, staff and in the fans. If they did not expect us to have spirit going into the game, they do now.”
Diarra claimed last night that he did not understand the fuss and insisted Andrews was trying to stir up trouble for the French camp.
"What happened at the end of the game, it happens often with excitement,” he said. “You have players who want to make sure you take a card.
“They are looking for stories. It is all: ‘They said this and they said that.’ I see no reason why I should speak of the Irish people."
The incident is still sure to add a degree of spice to proceedings on Wednesday night, especially given the fact that the 13 players who walked the suspension tightrope at the weekend will have no such fears in the second leg.
“I don’t think it’s going to take any extra motivation,” said Andrews. “There’s a World Cup at stake. This is a very minor thing, is it not?
“We’re going there and we need to score, first and foremost.
“If we get two then we will be flying. A clean sheet is obviously vitally important. We knows that the whole country wants to get to the World Cup.” Andrews and Diarra are two of those players who had a previous yellow card hanging over their heads at the weekend and the Dubliner admitted that it had made him more cautious in the first tie.
Given what happened after the final whistle, Andrews and Glenn Whelan’s duel with Lassana and Alou Diarra in central midfield will be of particular interest at Stade de France.
“It was something that we spoke about before the match.
“We needed to push on to the two as much as we could and stop the ball getting to (Yoann Gourcuff) who would be the spare man most of the time.
“We did not want to sit off and let them dictate. In the main, I thought it worked quite well and he did not get a lot of freedom in that hole.
“When he did get on the ball I thought that Dunny and Sean St Ledger did fantastic in closing him down. Overall, we were quite pleased.”
Seconds out, round two.
