A year to the day since Liverpool last tasted defeat, in a reverse to Manchester City that effectively cost them the league title, Mohamed Salah helped ensure his team remained firmly on course to put that matter right in 2020.

“I kind of get what you’re asking, but we didn’t lose anyway.”

“Mixed emotions,” said McCarthy afterwards.

Paul Dowling assesses the performances of Ireland's players in the 1-1 draw with Denmark.

Matt Doherty’s late header was not enough to send the Republic of Ireland to the Euro 2020 finals as they came up just short in a tense encounter with old foes Denmark.

Browne's inclusion in the starting team for last Thursday's friendly against New Zealand appeared to rule him out of the running.

And so it all comes down to this. Ninety minutes that will decide qualification for the Euro 2020 finals.

Ireland are facing one of the in-form teams in Europe, whose unbeaten run over the past three years is lurking them towards world record territory.

Well, yes, and here we go again… But before we get into ‘Dane-ja vu’ or even ‘Oh, Dane-ger here’ territory, a word of two about the headlines that got away on account of Troy Parrott being so inconsiderate towards us hacks as to refrain from crowning his senior debut, at the ridiculously tender age of 17, with the goal or two or even three which we were all demanding.

Mick McCarthy has claimed VAR is ruining football after admitting referees used to get “95%” of decisions correct anyway.

Spurs teenager Troy Parrott and Celtic's Lee O'Connor both make the move up from Stephen Kenny's U21 squad

Sheffield United moved up to sixth in the Premier League table after a 3-0 victory against Burnley.

Seamus Coleman will miss out as he serves a two-game suspension but will be invited to join up with the squad in Dublin for the final Euro 2020 qualifier.

The opening weeks of the new season suggested Arsenal manager Unai Emery was well on his way to ridding his side of the long-standing cliche of a squad with an abundance of talent but a dire shortage of commitment.

After the 2-0 defeat to Switzerland in Geneva on Tuesday, Mick McCarthy has no hesitation in saying that Ireland were beaten by “the best team in the group”.

Forty-five years after making my Ireland debut, 55 years after watching my country play for the first time, I’m struggling to think of a week when we produced back-to-back performances as poor as these.

For a country synonymous with watches, Switzerland’s team have developed an unusual aversion to sticking by the clock.

Aaron Connolly is very much in Mick McCarthy’s mind for a starting place in Geneva tomorrow night but if the Brighton bright spark is to be given the nod, the manager suggests he might need support up front.

Ireland are top of the group with two games to play - starting with a tough tie in Switzerland on Tuesday.

It didn’t take long at Mick McCarthy’s pre-match press conference for the visitors present to learn that Aaron Connolly’s fever had already reached Tbilisi.

Shane Duffy will be on this afternoon’s flight which will take the Irish squad to Tbilisi for Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Georgia.

Following his dream debut in the Premier League on Saturday, Aaron Connolly will take his first steps as a senior Ireland international when he trains with the rest of Mick McCarthy’s squad in Abbotstown this afternoon.

Brighton’s Shane Duffy and Sheffield United’s David McGoldrick could yet be fit for Ireland’s game against Switzerland on Tuesday week.

Mick McCarthy has offered his support to Richard Keogh, as the veteran Irish defender begins his recovery from the career-threatening knee injury which he sustained in a car crash last Tuesday night following which two of his Derby County teammates - Tom Lawrence and Mason Bennett - were charged with drink-driving.

Blackburn Rovers defenders Darragh Lenihan and Greg Cunningham have been called up for the Republic of Ireland's Euro 2020 qualifiers this month.

None of Mick McCarthy's four strikers had an international goal to their name when the squad assembled in Dublin, but they headed back to their clubs with both McGoldrick and Collins having opened their respective accounts.

A look at the Republic of Ireland's player performances against Bulgaria tonight.

In a spirit of, as he put it,“nothing ventured, nothing gained”, Mick McCarthy has made the left-field decision to play Conor Hourihane atleft-back against Bulgaria at the Aviva Stadium tonight.

Call it ‘John Egan — The Sequel’. The week before last, we were talking to him at Sheffield United’s training ground and, considering his bloodlines, it was no surprise that much of the conversation revolved around the upcoming All-Ireland final.

As late equalisers go, it obviously wasn’t quite up there with Ibaraki, that mind-blowing moment in stoppage time against Germany in the 2002 World Cup, when Robbie Keane fastened onto Niall Quinn’s header and crashed the ball via Oliver Kahn and the inside of the post to the back of the net.

David McGoldrick and Callum Robinson are out of Tuesday night’s friendly with Bulgaria at the Aviva Stadium.

There were times when this would have felt just like old times for Glenn Whelan. And everyone watching.

Despite plenty of endeavour, Ireland’s attack lacked the requisite composure or finishing ability to adequately trouble their opponents for much of the 90 minutes.

It’s an old adage in football: if you can’t win a game, at least do your best not to lose it.

Callum Robinson has shaken off a slight thigh injury to start for the Republic of Ireland in this evening's crunch Euro 2020 qualifier against Switzerland.

In the run-up to big games, we easily pleased meeja types like nothing better than when rival managers and players have the fabled ‘pop’ at each other.

Of their 19 games since the start of 2018, Switzerland have lost five, tacked on by a penalty shoot-out loss to England in the Nations League finals last time out.

Garry Doyle halflength cut Saipan: The year was dominated by that single word. Chances are no-one in Irish football had ever heard of the place before but by the time 2002 was out, it was as infamous as the other distant battlefields young Irishmen had fought in — Ypres, Gallipoli, and the Somme.

Seamus Coleman has warned the Republic of Ireland not to be taken in by the absence of Switzerland's talisman Xherdan Shaqiri as the sides go head-to-head in the battle for Euro 2020 qualification.

If David McGoldrick ever fancied piggy-backing on The Tall Boy’s literary success, he could do worse than title his own memoir, I Was Peter Crouch’s Boot Boy.

Mick McCarthy's men face Switzerland in a "huge" Euro2020 qualifier on September 5 before a friendly with Bulgaria five days later.

Mick McCarthy has named his Ireland squad for the forthcoming European Championship qualifier against Switzerland and the friendly with Bulgaria.

Baby steps but significant ones. That was Mick McCarthy’s assessment after witnessing James McCarthy’s first appearance in a Crystal Palace shirt.

The squad for the Euro 2020 qualifier against Switzerland will be announced on Friday.