Giggs promises San Marino mauling

The Phantom

Wales captain Ryan Giggs has vowed to respond to Saturday's Euro 2008 qualifying defeat in Dublin by beating San Marino in style on Wednesday.

"We were hurt by the Ireland result and the performance," said Giggs. "The only way to rectify that is to produce a positive performance on Wednesday. We're expected to win and to win well, and we will do that. San Marino have become a better team over the years, but still, we should be beating these teams."

Wales produced an inept attacking performance in Saturday's 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland, with Giggs falling way short of the level of performance he has been producing for Manchester United this season.
But the 33-year-old dismissed out of hand any questioning of his effort and approach in Croke Park, insisting players can not "turn it off and on" on a whim.

He added: "You have got to try to play well all the time because that breeds confidence. Anyone who knows the characters of the individuals concerned within the team, knows what was said is not right."

Despite the poor start to the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Giggs insists retiring from international duty has not entered his mind. And even if this campaign ends in another failure, Giggs made it clear he aims to be around for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, which begin in September 2008.
He said: "It did not even go through my head that I should step away from the situation now, not for one second. I've always said that I will be involved as long as I am enjoying it. And that means the 2010 World Cup campaign. I still enjoy the challenge of producing my form for Wales. As long as my fitness is good, I'm injury free, I will carry on. At the moment it will need someone to tell me I should stop, it won't be something I will suggest.

The Phantom

Well for all my sins, I'll be at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow night to hopefully see our boys bounce back after an awful game against the Republic of Ireland. Now I know we're not the greatest side in the world, but we never looked like getting a chance on goal, let alone a shot on target. It was truly dreadful. Toshack himself said he was embarrassed by the performance (take note Mr McLaren) and i'm sure he'll be telling the players that they need to buck up their ideas for this match, and a convincing win is the least they can give back to the fans. Hopefully we can come away with a 4-0 victory.

Crockerinho

So that means you will scrap a 1-0 win

The Phantom

Well 3-0 wasn't a bad scoreline, we deserved it, but should have scored at least 3 more. The San Marino players are awfull divers... they're the worst I've ever seen. After an hour the ref had enough and gave pretty much everything to us, even a generous penalty, that was clearly outside the box. I loved the ref... how can anyone not like a fat Armenian called Ararat! lol

Crockerinho

Even worse divers than the man in your avatar?

The Phantom

ha ha, yes... much worse. The theatrics of it all was way over the top. James Collins pushed one in the back, and he fell over as if he'd got shot!