The thrill is back in Irish football
Yes, we technically qualified in Dublin for Euro 2012 but everyone knows the 4-0 away win in the first leg of that play-off against Estonia was the result which really secured Ireland’s passage to Poland. Other than as a prolonged celebration, the second leg was virtually a non-event, certainly in terms of there being anything competitive at stake.
But whether for World Cup or European Championship qualification, Monday’s game was the first time Ireland have had to do it at home when the the pressure was really on. And for anyone with a love of our game, it was genuinely uplifting to see how everyone – management, players and supporters – rose to the challenge.
When I previewed the game in these pages, I suggested if Ireland approached it with the right attitude then Bosnia were there for the taking. And I think the manner of Monday’s victory bore that out.
Obviously, we still had to defend very well, as we’d done in the first leg in Zenica and, again, huge compliments are due to the central defenders, Richard Keogh and Ciaran Clark, who stayed really strong, particularly in that second-half when Bosnia were pressing for that equaliser. Seamus Coleman was terrific defensively too.
The big selection surprise in the back four was Robbie Brady at left back. Yes, Stephen Ward’s position was always going to be under threat but I was hardly alone in assuming that Marc Wilson would be the one to come in as a replacement.
Yet it’s undeniable the manager’s decision to play Brady there paid off, particularly on occasions in the first half when himself, Jeff Hendrick and Wes Hoolahan combined really well to do what I felt they hadn’t done enough of in the first leg – play some attacking football that, on home turf, the Aviva crowd could really rise to.
We got a break with the penalty decision, there’s no doubt about that. It removed a lot of apprehension because now a goal for Bosnia would only level the tie rather than giving them an immediate advantage. Of course, the spot kick had to be dispatched first – and Jon Walters made no mistake. He would emerge as the night’s match winner, later scoring his second to confirm the 2-0 victory, and that was fitting because he probably epitomises the team’s bedrock qualities.
He’s not the most extravagant player but he gets the job done. He is physically strong, runs all day, never gives up and when the ball is in the box he’s usually in and around the area where we’re going to score. And a lot of his work is unsung. He even had a hand in Shane Long’s celebrated goal against Germany because he had the intelligence not to try to get back onside and get involved, and instead just walked back and allowed Long to get on with making his run in on Neuer’s goal.
Walters is a real, good pro and those characteristics are what Ireland’s qualification campaign has been all about. Not brilliant football but stamina, endurance and spirit, in tandem with the emergence of players like Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick, Ciaran Clark and Darron Randolph.
Probably none of those is of the calibre of the best players Mick McCarthy brought through – the likes of Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne – but they’re all solid lads. And, in Brady, I think we’re seeing the development of a player who can bring real composure to the team.
The next challenge for Martin O’Neill and his players is to see if they can make an impact at the finals in 2016. And the good news on that front, before they even kick a ball in France, is that with 24 teams involved in the expanded tournament, there’s much less likelihood they’ll find themselves in quite as punishing a group as that with which Giovanni Trapattoni’s team had to contend at Euro 2012. When you look back at our opponents then – the two eventual finalists Spain and Italy, plus Croatia – it was always going to be a very difficult task for Ireland to beat any of those teams. This time there’ll be less quality in each group and so a better chance, I think, for Ireland to progress.
It’s also worth noting that, for all the limitations of this team, world champions Germany couldn’t beat us and both Poland and Scotland only managed to do so by a single goal. The lesson from that, I think, is no-one is going to smash this Irish side. It has shown it has the ability to dig in and, if the opposition is not up to matching our character and spirit, then we could surprise a few people in France.
I have said at various times throughout the qualification campaign it was unclear to me what way Martin O’Neill wanted his team to play. But, now that I’ve seen them negotiate all their competitive matches, I’ve come to the conclusion he’s one of those coaches who looks at the type of opposition Ireland are up against and picks his team accordingly.
And it’s probably not a bad strategy because, in truth, we don’t actually have 11 straight picks. And, more to the point, in the end it proved successful – we’re in the finals.
I can’t deny I had serious doubts along the way, particularly when we could only draw with Scotland at home – I thought we were in real trouble then. And going into the back to back Germany and Poland games, I feared the worst.
But, to be fair to Martin, he never appeared to panic and, even though it was often hard to second-guess his decisions, he always seemed sure about what he was trying to do. Ultimately, any manager is only as good as his results, and for beating Germany and knocking out a decent side in Bosnia in the play-offs, O’Neill deserves to stay on as Ireland manager past the Euro finals and on into the campaign for the next World Cup.But right now, it’s just lovely to be able to savour the achievement of qualification for a major tournament. I saw so many young kids at the Aviva for the games against Germany and Bosnia who will have been inspired by those occasions. And for me too, it was a thrill to be there on the night we booked our place in France.
