'How can there not be VAR?': Stephen Kenny rues penalty decision as Mitrovic sinks Ireland
Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Mark Travers watches as the shot of Aleksandar Mitrovic of Serbia hits the net to concede his side's second goal. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Stephen Kenny was bitterly disappointed with the failure to award a penalty for a tackle on Aaron Connolly, early in the second half when the Republic of Ireland's World Cup qualifier with Serbia was tied at 1-1.
A second-half brace from substitute Aleksandar Mitrovic saw Ireland's campaign start with defeat this evening, Kenny's men falling to a 3-2 defeat.
But it could have been so different had Ireland been given the chance to go back in front early in that second period.
“We’re really disappointed to lose that game," Kenny told RTÉ. "Aaron Connolly, it looks like a cast-iron penalty, from where I am anyway, to make it 2-1. The player’s gone through him to win the ball and it’s the easy option to give the corner rather than the penalty.
Asked if he was disappointed VAR wasn['t being used for the game, Kenny replied: “How can there not be VAR? There is for some matches and not for others. I don’t understand how. There’s nothing we can do about that now.
“We’re disappointed with the second goal. I think overall, I can’t believe we conceded three goals. It wasn’t that type of match. They had a period first half when they pushed us back. Tadic came right into midfield and overloaded us a little bit.
“But we were comfortable defensively. Seamus Coleman marshalled his defence brilliantly and it was great first goal from Alan Browne. When you’re 3-1 down you’re wondering how.”
Alan Browne’s opener ended a drought of 678 minutes without an Irishman finding the net, and James Collins had the final say with four minutes to go, but Serbia did more than enough to earn the three points in the intervening passages.
That’s nine games in charge now for Kenny and still no win.
An inexperienced visiting side played some nice stuff and defended honestly but they lost out to an opponent fielding class players in Dusan Tadic, Dusan Vlahovic and Aleksander Mitrovic that Ireland haven’t boasted in a long, long time.
Luxembourg, defeated 1-0 by Qatar hours earlier, are the opponents in Dublin on Saturday. An opportunity for Kenny’s kids to wash this latest loss from their systems, then, but this reversal makes an already tough eight-game group all the more challenging.
Predicting the Irish XI was a fool’s errand given the absence of so many would-be automatic choices through injury, but Kenny didn’t shy away from the bold calls with a side he described as brimming with “attacking intent” and one capable of creating chances and scoring goals.
Shane Duffy, the subject of so much pre-game attention, was dropped on the back of his club woes, Ciaran Clark and Dara O’Shea getting the nod at the back where they were protecting Mark Travers for what was the young keeper’s competitive debut.
The ‘Seamus Coleman or Matt Doherty’ nettle was finally grasped with the manager handing the former a first game for his country since 2019 and the latter a berth to boot. Josh Cullen, Jayson Molumby and Aaron Connolly all provided further injections of youth.
How they would line out only became apparent come the first whistle, Coleman on the right flank in a back three, Doherty and Enda Stevens operating as the wide men in a midfield five and Aaron Connolly and Callum Robinson partnering up front.
Serbian manager Dragan Stojkovic raised some eyebrows with a lineout interpreted as a nod towards the visit to the same stadium of Group A favourites Portugal on Wednesday but they still possessed a teamsheet topped by an “exceptional forward line” according to Kenny.
He was right about that, too.
An early flurry of corners at both ends got the game underway. Serbia would earn nine by the interval and dominate possession but Ireland looked comfortable for most of that 45 with Travers keeping his gloves clean until close to half-time.
Ireland backed up Kenny’s promise not to play it long but Browne and Doherty were chief culprits in giving possession away and the ball wasn’t ‘sticking’ up front either. Ireland depended for the most part on their discipline and workrate.
The opening goal, though, was intricate and cathartic, Seamus Coleman breaking up another Serbian attack and Browne twice stitching seams together before heading a Callum Robinson cross back across goal and into the side netting from the far post.
The equaliser, for all Serbia’s nice patterns, came from nothing much of anything. Ajax playmaker Tadic beating Clark to a header pitched towards Vlahovic who disengaged enough from O’Shea to engineer the space and the angle required. The finish was low and gave Travers little chance.
The five minutes that followed before the break were Ireland’s shakiest to that point, the visitors losing some of their shape and sense of calm, and it took a deflection and then Travers’ first save to deny Filip Djuricic on two separate occasions.
Vlahovic, with 12 goals for Fiorentina this season, had the ball in the net again on the restart but was miles offside and Ireland found a purple path on the back of it, threatening with impressive moves down each flank and Clark popping a quickfire header well wide from a corner. Encouraging.
Add in strong but unsuccessful shouts for a penalty at each end, one for Connolly and the other shortly after for Vlahovic, and the game seemed to rest on something of a knife-edge but the Serbs had much the sharper blade.
Tadic, so dangerous throughout, made it a hat-trick of assists, the latter pair both being dispatched by out-of-favour Fulham striker Mitrovic who lobbed Travers – a yard too far off his line – for the first just five minutes after coming on and then headed home with his second.
Ireland’s evening looked done with 15 minutes to play but a mistake at the back by Stefan Mitrovic allowed Shane Long set James Collins, his fellow substitute, up for a tap-in. Two goals ranks as a veritable bounty for Ireland given the last six months but it still wasn’t enough on the night.
M Dmitrovic; N Milenkovic, S Mitrovic, S Pavlovic; M Gajic, S Lukic, U Racic, F Mladenovic; D Tadic, D Vlahovic, F Djuricic. Subs: A Mitrovic for Djuricic and N Maksimovic for Racic (both 63); N Gudejl for Tadic (78); L Jovic for Vlahovic (82).
M Travers; S Coleman, D O’Shea, C Clark; M Doherty, J Molumby, J Cullen, A Browne, E Stevens; A Connolly, C Robinson. Subs: J Hendrick for Molumby (61); S Long for Connolly (67); R Brady for Clark, J McClean for Robinson and J Collins for Browne (all 79).
D Massa (Italy).
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