Belgian blues still linger with wary Shane Long

Euphoria swept through the Irish squad following Wednesday’s victory over Italy, but Shane Long was unable to banish the Belgian blues as he looked ahead to the challenge posed by France in Sunday’s Euro 2016 last-16 tie.

The Italians exhibited nothing like the class of Belgium and the Ireland striker believes France’s fluid style is a warning to his squad the degree of slackness evident in Bordeaux will be capitalised upon were it to seep in again at the weekend.

“We played well in two of our three games because it just didn’t click for us against Belgium,” Long said of the 3-0 reverse suffered last Saturday. “Like Belgium, France have the players to punish us, so we need to learn from that defeat by playing as a unit.”