Israel captain Manor Solomon has said he would likely be banned if he voiced his true opinion of the Ireland team after his side's 3-0 Nations League defeat. The match took place at a neutral venue in Debrecen, Hungary, on Sunday night, following significant doubts over whether it would go ahead.
Pre-match tensions and on-field actions
Ireland's players voted to play the match, though goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrew from the squad. During the Israeli national anthem, the Irish players bowed their heads and refused the traditional pre-match handshakes. Captain Dara O'Shea declined to shake hands with West Ham winger Solomon at the coin toss, and the team wore black armbands in recognition of lives lost in the Gaza conflict.
Ireland raced into a 3-0 lead within 25 minutes. When Jack Moylan scored, he removed his black armband, kissed it, raised it in the air, and then kissed the badge on his chest.
Solomon's post-match comments
Speaking after the match, Solomon refused to share his true thoughts on his opponents, whom Israel will face again in a behind-closed-doors game 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 ten times better than theirs, stronger, an amazing country with amazing people."
Solomon continued: "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
Solomon also looked ahead to the next fixture, saying: "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 called the performance "a shame" and said: "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."
Solomon added: "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. 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."
