Lansdowne Road: Six of the Republic of Ireland's greatest days
ONE TO REMEMBER: Republic of Ireland's Troy Parrott celebrates with the fans. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire.
Think of famous Republic of Ireland victories and the mind inevitably drifts to foreign shores. Goodison Park in 1949, Stuttgart, Giants Stadium, Robbie Brady’s header in Lille. Plenty of history has been written at home too.
Lansdowne Road first hosted a Republic of Ireland side in 1927 when they faced an Italian ‘B’ team. The next didn’t happen until 1971, since when there have been great days at the old ramshackle ground and the shiny new replacement.
Ireland had claimed big wins in Ballsbridge before this. France had been beaten twice in World Cup qualifiers, in 1977 and again in 1981. There was a standout 2-1 win over the Netherlands in 1980 as well.
The difference with the win over Bulgaria was that it led somewhere: to a first ever appearance at a major finals the following year at Euro 88, even if that still looked unlikely in the wake of this win and before Gary Mackay went down in history.
Ireland were undeniable this day. Goals from Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran gave them the win but most remember it for the red card shown to Liam Brady who retaliated after an afternoon of no little provocation on the part of Ayan Sadakov.
What few care to remember is that Lansdowne wasn’t even half-full on the day. A crowd of just 22,000 turned up, as was the norm in these pre-boom times for Irish football, but the good times were coming.
A sunny spring afternoon, a pitch that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a farm, and a game of football that the Spanish midfielder Michel famously said felt like a game of rugby as the ball passed to and fro over his head.
It was Michel who won it for the hosts, his leg deflecting a cross from Ray Houghton into his own net after Tony Cascarino had flicked on one of those trademark Packie Bonner clearances from the outer reaches of his own box.
The place was packed this time, the previous summer’s exploits in Germany having kickstarted the Charlton era, and the memory of the day remains the feverish atmosphere on the terraces and in the stands.
If Ireland’s football was agricultural then it was played with an intensity and application that just would not be denied. Ireland had actually started the campaign slowly, and were outclassed in Seville, so this was liftoff. A first World Cup appearance was imminent.
The making of the Mick McCarthy era. Ireland’s manager had said that his team was a match for everyone with something approaching a full hand. How right he was as Denis Irwin opened the scoring from the spot and Roy Keane added a header.
Two-up after 15 minutes, this was the first game of the Euro 2000 qualifiers and a good time to face a Croatian side without key players like Davor Suker, Alen Boksic and Robert Prosinecki, and a few months after their heroics in reaching the last four of the World Cup.
The Croatians lost their heads, and two players, to red cards late in the second-half. And Ireland would ultimately pip them to second place in the group and a playoff that ended with the disappointment and carnage of that playoff second leg against Turkey in Bursa.
Not a happy ending, then. Not yet, anyway, but an Irish team combining some of the old salts from the Charlton chapter and emerging young talent like Robbie Keane and Damien Duff would make it to the World Cup in Asia four years later.
The day of days. If thousands more than the capacity crowd swear to have been there now then the same number again probably insists they watched it in Slane where U2 played later in the evening and Bono draped himself in the Tricolour.
A game that hardly needs recounting, but we’ll rehash the basics. Lucky to be level at the break, Ireland had Gary Kelly sent off before the hour but claimed the winner through Jason McAteer and, with it, the guarantee of a playoff place.
Louis van Gaal was Dutch boss at the time and the fervour of the day seemed to get to him as he unloaded a platoon of strikers in an attempt to break the spirit and the resistance of an Irish team that lived on its wits at times.
Still, undoubtedly, the greatest win of them all for the Boys in Green at the stadium even if the famous photo at the end of Mick McCarthy reaching in to shake hands while Roy Keane was pulling away would stand as a snapshot of the crisis to come in Saipan.
The first time the Republic had ever taken down the reigning world champions and a game that would hang like an albatross around the neck of the Irish football community for ten years until Ronaldo and Portugal were undone this week.
Shane Long’s superb 70th-minute finish seems as fresh now as it did in 2015, the Tipperary man running on to a booming Darren Randolph clearance and smashing it past Manuel Neuer in the German goal.
Mesut Ozil had a goal disallowed earlier in the contest, but German boss Joachim Low was ultimately scathing of his own team as he looked back on a game they dominated 15 months on from their World Cup triumph in Brazil.
Martin O’Neill’s Ireland would ultimately book their place at Euro 2016 with a comfortable two-leg playoff win over Bosnia and Herzegovina and make the last 16 in the tournament itself before bowing out 2-1 to the hosts.
One common thread through all six games is the clean sheet kept by Ireland. The defence was heroic against the fifth-ranked side in the world, surviving an early press and a concerning flurry of chances late in the first-half.
That wasn’t enough the month before in Lisbon where Portugal pinched an injury-time winner. The difference this time was the Republic’s willingness and ability to discommode the visitors with quick, direct counters.
Troy Parrott’s first-half double sent the Aviva into paroxysms of delight. Ronaldo’s impetuous elbow on Dara O’Shea and the pantomime nature of his red card and exit shouldn’t gloss over how comfortable Ireland were after the break.
Vitinha fresh-aired a sitter on the restart and Caoimhin Kelleher was forced into one world-class save in the 89th-minute, but Ireland had more opportunities of their own. A superb display and result, and all the better for just how unexpected it was.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
