Israeli coach’s wish is granted

“A DREAM” is how Israeli coach Avraham Grant described the fighting comeback at Lansdowne Road.

Grant’s side remain on the road to the World Cup in Germany following a battling performance that keeps them unbeaten in Group Four.

Avi Yechiel, making his international debut, and Israel captain Avi Nimni scored their goals for a draw that leaves them second in the table to Switzerland on 11 points.

“I still don’t want to wake up from this dream, to score twice here, a place which hasn’t seen two away goals in generations is a great achievement,” Grant admitted afterwards.

“It’s a great result for us. The players played like heroes. They manage to thrill me every time, more and more. It’s a pity about the opening minutes, because we conceded from situations that we worked on in training.

“But we came back and that’s the important thing,” Grant said. “My players fought bravely throughout the 90 minutes against a very physical side. In the last 30 minutes, we limited them to crosses only.

“But we didn’t concede and that is most important,” the coach added.

Yehiel, whose headed a stunning goal past Shay Given, said that he was unable to sleep after his heroic intervention. However he expressed words of caution to the Israeli public desperate for the side to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1970.

“We have some work to do and not much time to taste euphoria ... We didn’t even win the game.”

Those sentiments were lost in his native land yesterday though.

“Miracle in Dublin,” screamed a headline in the sports pages of the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth. “The World Cup dream is still alive,” the popular Maariv daily.

Israel’s performance caused many of the newspaper commentators to compare the comeback with Liverpool’s against AC Milan in the Champions League final. Most of the credit went to goalkeeper Dudu Awate.

“The message from Ireland must be interpreted in just one way ... we have had a method, a system and a little luck, and most of all, a rare list of achievements. This must be worth a shot at the World Cup,” said Shlomi Barzel, a sports writer for Haaretz.

However Alon Idan, a columnist with Haaretz, believes that the coach is blessed with incredible luck as opposed to tactical nuance.

“Last night’s draw in Dublin was an extreme, exciting, exhilarating case of what can only be called “Grant’s Luck.”

“A lot has been said about Israel’s heroic campaign, about its tough character, about the Israeli mentality and about Grant’s smart tactics. But all of that pales next to Grant’s Luck. Without it, Damien Duff doesn’t miss from 20 centimetres and Avi Yehiel doesn’t head in from 16 metres out.”