All sides happy to walk away after phoney war

THERE may have been very little to capture the imagination last night but neither Giovanni Trapattoni nor Slaven Bilic will be complaining too much.

No psychological blow was suffered or inflicted. More importantly, nor were any physical ones, as both countries look to keep their resources intact for the resumption of the really meaningful business next month.

For Ireland, the positives were that a team ranked ninth in the world had been comfortably repelled, extending an unbeaten run of games to five. And Trapattoni will also have been encouraged by the performance of Stephen Ward, in particular, and reminded — as if he needed reminding — that Robbie Keane remains a key man for the Republic.

It might have been a frustrating outing for the skipper, in so far as he didn’t get to add to his record tally of goals here, but the fact that he was still on the pitch — and still tirelessly hunting down the ball — at the end of 90 minutes tells you all you need to know about how highly his manager rates his importance to the Irish cause.

The game kicked off to the echoing background of another half-empty house at the Aviva, and much of a pedestrian first 45 did little to charge up the lacklustre atmospherics.

In many ways, it was no more than we’ve come to expect from Trapattoni’s Ireland when faced with technically superior opposition: content for long periods to stand off and retain their shape as Croatia strung some sweet passes together but never really threatened to trouble Shay Given.

A measure of the visitors’ dominance of possession in the opening quarter was that Sean St Ledger had arguably the best run up the wing of any Irish player — except, unfortunately, it was in the wrong direction as he sought out the safe sanctuary of his goalkeeper.

St Ledger and Richard Dunne were both commanding for Ireland at the back while, of the boys on probation, Ward did his chances of usurping Kevin Kilbane in the long run no harm.

With will o’ the wisp Luka Modric orchestrating everything for the visitors, Ward had to be on his guard as the playmaker regularly probed his sector of the field with long, raking passes to the flanks. Yet the Wolves man still found time to provide timely cover for his centre-halves and also keep the supply lines open to the Irish attack with some well-judged forward balls.

Up front, Shane Long seemed to be labouring under the weight of expectation which has accompanied his big money move to the Premier League. His very first touch was heavy and his first cross over-hit and then, when a quick-thinking St Ledger ball caught out a high Croatian offside line, the new West Brom man didn’t make the most of the acres of space afforded him.

Yet, that spring in his step which Trapattoni admires was always evident and never more so than in Ireland’s best effort of the first half, when the Tipperary boy got his head onto the end of a good Glenn Whelan cross to force Stipe Pletikosa into a goal-line save.

While Damien Duff showed welcome flashes of his attacking quality, Keane could be found launching a one-man crusade against the Croatian goal when he wasn’t dropping deep in a bid to help Ireland link up the play. His value as skipper was evident too when his body language left Ward in no doubt that he should be willing to overlap from time to time.

Overall, it didn’t help Ireland’s cause that they surrendered possession cheaply on occasion yet, for all Croatia ‘s proficiency, the stats at half time would show that Given had had no meaningful save to make.

Slaven Bilic sent Bayern Munich striker Ivica Olic on after the break in a bid to give his side some penetration. A full-blooded Darron Gibson tackle was the striker’s warm welcome to the Aviva and sparked a little round of handbags among the players which briefly threatened to raise the temperature of the occasion above tepid. For the first time in the game Croatia managed a couple of efforts which directly targeted Given’s goal, as the match began to open up a little.

Just past the hour mark, the Donegal man made way to give Keiren Westwood some game time but you had to suspect it was a much less happy departure for Stephen Hunt, whose unusually pedestrian performance ended with him being replaced by a lively Andy Keogh.

In the 72nd minute, the Irish defenders sought to show the strikers the way to goal, Dunne getting on the end of a fine St Ledger cross but unable to keep his header on target.

Trapattoni then followed up on his promise to draft Ward into midfield after Darren O’Dea came on as a substitute for the hard-working Glenn Whelan, although one suspects the move may have been mainly about not antagonising Tony Pulis at Stoke any more than was strictly necessary. Certainly, it’s hard to see an engine room combination of Ward and Gibson looming large in Trap’s plans between now and October.

Just as there is no chance of the phoney war feel of last night being repeated when Ireland welcome Slovakia here and then head to Russia early next month.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Westwood 63), Kelly, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Duff (Treacy 82), Whelan (O’Dea 73), Gibson, Hunt (Keogh 63), Keane, Long (Cox 82)

CROATIA: Pletikosa, Srna, Corluka (Vrsalijko 73), Simunic, Strinic, Lovren, Mandzukic (Kalinic 72), Vukojevic (Djumovic 86), Modric, Kranjcar, Eduardo (Olic 45)

Referee: Tom Harald Hagen (Norway).