Gavin Bazunu's brilliance offers Ireland hope for the future
It had been hard to find many positives from a tough week for Stephen Kelly, but amid the dark clouds gathering over the Ireland manager, he got a release through Gavin Bazunu and his decision to blood him at full international level in this campaign.
The Dubliner may be only 19 years old and yet to play at a level higher than English League One in club football, but he already looks to be a fixture on the international stage behind the Boys in Green, and has all the makings of a man to challenge Shay Given and Packie Bonner as the best goalkeeper this country has produced.
Tuesday night’s breathtaking game at the Aviva Stadium simply confirmed what those in the know have been saying for some time — that Bazunu is destined for the very top. From start to finish, the keeper who is currently on loan at Portsmouth from Manchester City was the most compelling player on view, keeping Ireland in the game with a string of superb saves that gave Kenny’s men the chance to snatch that late draw.
Bazunu may have shot to national prominence when he saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo last week, but his display on Tuesday night was even more impressive, as he produced save after save against Serbia’s star-studded forward line to save Ireland from a hammering.
They may have to start thinking about Euro 2024 as their next chance of qualifying for a major tournament, but Kenny — or whoever replaces him — will have something to build on with the emergence of a new generation of talent. And Bazunu, starting his seventh successive game as number one, is the best of the lot.
It was only two minutes after kick-off that he was called into action, clearing a corner before saving from Dusan Vlahovic, the Fiorentina striker who was close to joining Spurs this summer.
Six minutes from the end, and shortly before Ireland equalised through an own goal, Bazunu was at it again, spreading himself like a young Peter Schmeichel to keep out Filip Kostic, not for the first time.
In the intervening 80 minutes, the youngster produced a string of saves, blocks, tip-overs, and outstretched legs to keep out the likes of Alexandr Mitrovic, Nemanja Radonic, and the aforementioned Vlahovic and Kostic again.
The one time he was beaten was when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic powered a header past him to put Serbia ahead in the 20th minute, and even then he was unlucky after getting a hand to the ball.
He could not stop it, but he never stopped trying and was rewarded with a Man of the Match award and a hard-earned point that will ultimately not be enough to see Ireland reach Qatar.
By next November, when the first ever midwinter World Cup starts in Qatar, it is likely that the wider world will have heard of Bazunu, who first rose to prominence as a 16-year-old at Shamrock Rovers.
Chelsea and Tottenham came calling, but it was Manchester City who took him, for a big fee. Last season was spent mostly on loan at Rochdale, although he made City’s squad in the Champions League before going to Portsmouth this summer.
Despite playing two divisions below the Premier League, he is getting more game time than Caoimhin Kelleher at Liverpool, and so Kenny has shown faith in the teenager, and been rewarded with outstanding displays.
The pick of his saves on Tuesday night was the second of two stops with his legs from Mitrovic around the hour mark, which threw his team-mates a lifeline. He had earlier tipped away a powerful drive from the Fulham striker, and saved twice in quick succession from Gudelj during a first half that saw Ireland on the rack.
He also made a double save from Nemanja Radonijc in the 73rd minute, before showing the rashness of youth when he flew out of his penalty area for a missed challenge, only to be bailed out by James McClean’s clearance.
He showed good footwork at times, a basic minimum if he is to prove to Pep Guardiola that he can do a job at the Etihad Stadium sometime down the line. Bazunu is clearly ambitious, and said afterwards: “It was unbelievable, a great reward after years of hard work. It makes me determined to push on and reach a higher level.”
There were 25,000 fans at the Aviva for the second game running, although it sounded like a lot more, especially when Milinkovic-Savic put the ball into his own net to make it 1-1. But they were only alive thanks to Bazunu.
“We knew we had to stay in the game to keep it 1-0,” he said. “The fans were brilliant to us, just spurring us on and allowed us to get to that point where we could challenge again.”
It may not be enough to give Ireland any chance of qualifying, but there are glimmers of hope for the future, not least from Bazunu, who said: “It is just a point, but we continued to show as a group how we are developing and where we can go in the future.”
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