Israel captain Manor Solomon has admitted he would likely face a ban if he expressed his true feelings about the Republic of Ireland team. Ireland claimed a 3-0 win over Israel in the Nations League on Sunday night, with the match played at a neutral venue in Debrecen, Hungary.
Pre-match tensions and on-field actions
Before kick-off, there were doubts the fixture would take place at all. The Ireland team held a vote and agreed to play, but goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrew from the squad. The Ireland players bowed their heads during the Israeli national anthem and refused to take part in traditional pre-match handshakes. Dara O'Shea, Ireland's captain, also chose not to shake hands with Solomon at the coin toss. Both teams wore black armbands in recognition of lives lost in the Gaza conflict.
Ireland led 3-0 within 25 minutes. When Jack Moylan scored, he removed his black armband, kissed it, held it aloft, and then kissed the badge on his chest.
Solomon's post-match comments
Speaking after the final whistle, Solomon declined to reveal his genuine thoughts on his opponents, whom Israel will face again in a behind-closed-doors fixture in Serbia next week. The 27-year-old forward said: "They said nonsense [to us] during the game, I don't want to talk about them. If I say what I think about them, I'll probably be banned for a few games so I don't want to say. Of course they hate us and we don't like them."
He added: "I'm already looking forward to the next game against them, it's going to be completely different. What they did with the anthem? I'm not interested in them, we have a country that is 10 times better than theirs, stronger, an amazing country with amazing people. We are proud to wear the national team's shirt and be Israelis. We are proud of our country and our soldiers. [The Irish] can play all their tricks. We are Israelis and love the country. And that will always be the case."
Looking ahead and disappointment
Solomon said: "We will do everything to make it look completely different against Kosovo, we have four more games in the campaign and it's not over. I believe in ourselves that we can do it. I know who I'm with here, I know the players and the team, we will get out of this and get revenge for this."
He described the display against Ireland as "a shame" before adding: "We have no words, we are all heartbroken and we knew how important this game is to us and to our entire country. We started the game in the worst possible way, a terrible first half and then it was very difficult for us to come back, even when we wanted to. We need to look at ourselves, each one in the mirror, because we didn't perform today. All the players, all of us together, need to get up from this, it's going to be very difficult but we will do it."
Solomon also said: "We tried not to get involved in everything around us as much as possible, we probably couldn't get it out of our heads or we didn't take it into account too much. We knew how important the game was for all the citizens of the country and we wanted to make everyone happy, unfortunately it didn't show on the pitch. We didn't show up for the first half, very disappointed."
