When European players and managers come to Ireland for a football match, you can predict fairly accurately what they will mumble to the press before the game. They'll mention that their Irish opponents will 'make it difficult', which is a euphemism for being physical/knocking it long. They'll also mention how vocal the fans can be.
The thing about Dundalk, however, is they've passed those cliches between them before booting them out of sight. Their exceptionally slick style of play has caught the attention of the nation: it shows the potential of the League of Ireland and the way Stephen Kenny has set out his side has been held up as an example to Irish football as a whole. Even by famed League of Ireland skeptic, Eamon Dunphy.
But one man who evidently hasn't seen much of Dundalk is Zenit St Petersburg's Artem Dzyuba, going by his comments to the media today. Presumably when asked what he expects Dundalk to produce, he dropped this remarkable inaccuracy:
Zenit's Artem Dzyuba: "Dundalk uses the British style, likes to play long balls, likes to fight and feels confident in the martial arts."!!
— Gavin McLaughlin (@gav_mclaughlin) October 19, 2016
Whoever had within 20 seconds for the first 'British style' reference about Dundalk... Zenit striker Artem Dzyuba has delivered
— Mark McCadden (@markmccadden) October 19, 2016
Elsewhere, some of the Russian journalists present decided to check another box:
Russian journalist asks Zenit player what he knows about Ireland. "All I know about is Guinness", says the journalist. Begorrah.
— Daniel McDonnell (@McDonnellDan) October 19, 2016
One would assume that Zenit's Mircea Lucescu has a different opinion to Dzuyba. If he shares this view, then he hasn't been watching Dundalk. And if that's the case, it may be time to lump on Dundalk.
