Are we more Stoke than Chelsea?
The pair, who had yet to fall from favour at Sky Sports, were discussing the latest Ballon D’Or nominees during a break in the action when Keys asked the former Scottish international whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo would score so prolifically in England.
Gray’s response, that they would “struggle in a cold night at the Britannia Stadium”, prompted guffaws and gasps in equal measure and is still trumpeted as a prime example of the self-smugness that surfaces sporadically amongst those charged with promotion of ‘the Greatest League in the World’.
“I don’t know if Barcelona have ever gone to a place like the Britannia Stadium,” said Gray, “and suffered the kind of onslaught from Tony Pulis’s team of long throws and free-kicks or been to Blackburn and been beaten up by their long ball into the box.”
Gray’s summation ignored the obvious fact that few, if any, teams have been able to secure anything like the volume of possession required to instigate an onslaught against Barcelona although a handful of sides have found ways of countering the tiki taka.
Chelsea and Inter Milan have both demonstrated how the Catalans can be beaten if not bettered through the application of stacked defences, discipline and a counter-attacking capability even while purists have lamented their ability of both to do so.
Chelsea, in particular, has been put forward as the template for Ireland this evening against a Spain side infused with many of the same players and much the same qualities as Barcelona, but it is a comparison that flatters Giovanni Trapattoni’s men.
If Ireland bear comparisons with any Premier League side it is actually that of a club such as Stoke – a mid-ranking, overachieving side that leans heavily on defensive discipline and agricultural tactics going forward.
It may not be “a wet night in Stoke” but the forecast is for rainfall in Gdansk but, even with Ireland fans expected to dominate the evening off the pitch as they did in Poznan, the fear is that Gray’s ‘Britannia’ theory will be discredited still further tonight.
Glenn Whelan will provide some manner of tenuous link between the two scenarios. His task alongside Keith Andrews in the Ireland midfield will rank right up there as the most thankless of all but the Dubliner is ready embrace the task come what may.
“I think so. We’re obviously playing against a lot of their players, big players. It’s something that you dream about and you want to go in and play against the best and do as well as you can and hopefully we can do that.
“I played against (Andres) Iniesta with Spain. At a younger age, we were in the same age group but I’m not sure about anyone else. We did alright but I think they beat us 2-1. He was up and coming and turned out to be a great player. He’s done particularly well for Barcelona.
“We know it’s an uphill battle now and nobody gives us any chance of getting out of the group which, on paper, is right. We have to go into the game and do as well as we can because we’ve got a lot of fans over here and it’s not for ourselves, it’s for them.”
Whelan, like a lot of his teammates in recent days, has sought to invoke the spirit of Paris from that 2009 World Cup play-off. The nothing-to-lose backdrop may be the same but France then and Spain now rank as very different propositions.
Ireland, too, are in a more perilous position after the defeat by Croatia.
“Obviously, it was very disappointing the other night but we have to pick ourselves up,” said Aiden McGeady. “There are still two games left. It’s not just one game and then you’re home, as a group we’re close knit and everything’s okay.
“You know the country expects us to get some points. We don’t want to go home from these championships with no points, so we want to get something against Spain and hopefully get something against Italy as well.”
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