Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of the international friendly between Ireland and Netherlands from the Aviva Stadium.
This is the first of two warm-up games Martin O’Neill’s side will play before their Euro 2016 opener against Sweden and with the final squad to be announced next week, the stakes couldn’t be any higher.
Kick-off is at 7.45pm.
A big crowd is expected at Lansdowne Road this evening.
Lets get straight to the team news.
After a week of build-up, Martin O’Neill has just named his XI for this evening with Shane Duffy, Harry Arter and David McGoldrick all given an opportunity to stake their claim.
Here are the substitutes available to O’Neill this evening. Many will be hoping to get a run out with Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers among those on the bench.
Ireland subs: Given (GK), Rogers (GK), O’Kane, Keogh, McGeady, Keane, McClean, Christie, Ward, Hoolahan, Murphy, O’Dowda, Hendrick, Gibson.
And this is how Danny Blind’s Netherlands line-up in Dublin. Man United forward Memphis Depay starts while Virgil Van Dijk and Georgino Wijnaldum of Southampton and Newcastle are the other familiar faces.
Roma playmaker Kevin Strootman is certainly one to keep an eye on.
Netherlands: Cillessen; Veltman, Bruma, Van Dijk, Willems; Bazoer, Wijnaldum, Strootman; Promes, Memphis, Janssen.
The FAI’s official Euro 2016 song, ‘The Irish Roar’ by Seo Linn, will be performed before tonight’s game.
If you haven’t listened to it, stick in those headphones and let us know what you think.
Ryan Bailey here with live updates while Ben Blake and Paul Fennessy are in position at the Aviva Stadium as we bring you comprehensive coverage of tonight’s game.
For those of you wondering, the game is live on Setanta Sports, with coverage just beginning. If you aren’t near a TV, we’ll bring you every kick off the ball right here.
Paul Fennessy reports from the Aviva Stadium
Shane Duffy, Harry Arter and David McGoldrick are among the fringe players that have been given a chance for Ireland.
The trio will be looking to impress, as will Stephen Quinn — another player who has been on the periphery of the squad of late.
Elsewhere, there are some more experienced stars included, with Darren Randolph, Seamus Coleman, John O’Shea and Jon Walters among the players virtually assured of a place on the plane to France.
Meanwhile, Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers could become the first League of Ireland player to represent Ireland since Joe Gamble in 2007.
The 34-year-old is on the bench for tonight’s friendly, after impressing in training during the week, as is 21-year-old Oxford winger Callum O’Dowda, who could also win his first cap.
Are you at the Aviva Stadium tonight? As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. E-mail ryan@the42.ie, tweet @the42_ie, post a message to our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.
Just half an hour until kick-off and the atmosphere is building. While you wait for the action, here are some of our pre-match offerings from a busy week in Abbotstown.
- 12 of the most memorable Ireland-Netherlands encounters
- ‘Fitness has never been a problem for me’ – O’Shea plays down Sunderland struggles
- ‘The number of times he’s played over the last few seasons would be a concern’
- Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers ‘a possibility’ to feature for Ireland tomorrow night
- James McCarthy set to travel to the Euros despite injury issues
- ‘I’m proud to say she was my daughter and I want to do her proud if she’s watching’ – Arter
- Duffy’s dream about to come true 4 years on from making Euros pledge
David Meyler isn’t involved tonight as he’s preparing for Hull’s Championship play-off final against Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow.
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The teams are in the tunnel. Ireland will wear their new white kit this evening while the visitors are in their traditional orange shirts.
The Aviva Stadium is far from full. Nowhere near the expected 40,000 just yet. It’s time for the anthems.
Kick-off! We’re underway at the Aviva Stadium.
Quiet start with Netherlands enjoying some early possession.
Just trying to figure out what formation O’Neill has deployed. It looks like McGoldrick is playing in behind the Long and Walters.
Ireland being forced to defend in these opening periods. Memphis has dropped out to the right and looks to come infield but Duffy is strong in the challenge.
Shane Long looks to be moving a little gingerly after a challenge a couple of minutes ago. Interestingly, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is here tonight, sitting alongside Long’s representative, Pat Dolan.
John O’Shea forced to head behind as the Dutch continue to prop. That cross came from the left-back Jetro Willems. The visitors are looking to go down the left a lot but Coleman has nullified the threat so far.
An interested observer.
A pretty uneventful start. Netherlands have dominated possession and it’s been a busy evening for the Irish defence already.
Shane Duffy has made a very positive start. He’s been a commanding figure so far alongside O’Shea.
Ireland struggling to keep possession but Stephen Quinn gets hold of the ball and he drives into the space on the right. The Reading midfielder gets to the byline but his cross is overhit and the chance is gone.
Moments later, Arter picks the ball up 35 yards from goal and he’s invited to shoot, but his effort is deflected into the arms of the goalkeeper.
20 mins gone, not a lot to write home about.
Shane Long is cynically hauled down on this near side and wins a free-kick in a dangerous position. The forward suffers a nasty looking cut on his knee after Bruma’s challenge.
After some running repairs, he’s back up on his feet and ready to continue. Brady is standing over the set-piece.
Dangerous delivery forces Jasper Cillessen to come off his line and punch clear. Long gets the nod to return to action and Ireland are back to their full complement.
Ireland have started to see much more of the ball and the crowd have responded. Not much in the way of action in either box, however.
McGoldrick finds Coleman with a brilliant cross-field ball. The Everton defender’s touch is perfect and van Dijk is forced to put it behind.
GOAL! Ireland 1-0 Netherlands (Long)
Brilliant delivery again from Brady, O’Shea powers a header towards goal and although it’s initially stopped by the ‘keeper, Long is there to bundle home.
Credit must go to McGoldrick too. His sweeping ball from left to right started that move off before Long converted from the corner.
Ireland have settled into the game as the half has wore on and now they’re enjoying most of the ball.
Close! Memphis whips in a delightful ball and it flies across goal and just wide of Darren Randolph’s far post.
Harry Arter goes into the book for going in a little rashly on Memphis. Both he and Quinn have been so eager in the challenge as they look to impose themselves on this game.
Shane Long’s goal separates the sides.
Ireland have played some really nice football in this first half. With Quinn and Arter in the engine room, there’s plenty of creativity and McGoldrick is finding space between the lines.
Half-time! Ireland 1-0 Netherlands
That was an encouraging 45 minutes of football from the Boys in Green. They were forced to sit back in the opening exchanges but soon settled into the game and the likes of Quinn and Arter got their foot on the ball.
Shane Duffy has been solid again in defence and is certainly doing his chances of going to France no harm. It’s a big second half coming up.
In the Setanta Sports studio, Kevin Kilbane believes Arter has done enough to go to France. Who has impressed you so far?
The Ireland subs are out warming-up and we’re sure to see a host of substitutions during the second half.
Back underway at the Aviva. No changes for Ireland.
Ireland have threatened from every set-piece this evening and this time it’s Duffy who steals a march on his man and looks to get on the end of Brady’s ball.
Chance! Yet another set-piece causes the Dutch defence all sorts of problems and it comes off Bruma and trickles just wide. From the corner, Duffy is unable to keep his header down. He should have kept that on target at the very least.
Ireland really pushing for a second now. Netherlands can’t clear their lines and it eventually falls to Long via Walters but the striker can’t keep his header on target.
Memphis whips in another dangerous looking ball but nobody in orange can get anywhere near it.
Concern for Shane Duffy as he stretches to clear a cross. The Blackburn defender slowly picks himself back up and it looks to be his knee. Lets hope he can run it off.
Meanwhile, Memphis has been replaced by Watford winger Steven Berghuis.
Berghuis gets involved straight away and sends an inviting ball into the box. The Dutch have plenty of numbers in there but Randolph deals with it comfortably, letting it sail out of play.
Gibson, McClean and Hendrick are all ready to come on. Long, Quinn and Whelan are the players to make way.
Meanwhile, Randolph plucks a cross out of the air and demonstrates his growing stature in this Irish team.
Martin O’Neill casting his eye over proceedings.
Netherlands come out of their shell and ask a few questions of the Irish defence. A deep cross finds Jansen as he pulls away from O’Shea but Randolph gets a strong hand to his header.
The official attendance tonight is 42,438, although there seems to be a lot less here than that FAI figure suggests.
A Mexican wave has broken out around the ground. Not a lot for the crowd to shout about at the minute.
Good work from McClean as he wins the ball back and finds Walters. The Stoke forward just can’t keep hold of it and the Dutch retain possession.
Wes Hoolahan is coming on for the final 15 minutes as he replaces David McGoldrick.
James McClean has been typically industrious since he came on. He wins another free-kick on halfway to get his side up the field as we head towards the final 10 minutes.
Chance! Needless to say it all comes from Brady’s corner, as Duffy glances his header past the far post.
Robbie Brady’s set-piece delivery has been superb all night and Duffy has provided a real threat each time he has ventured forward.
Arter receives a good ovation as he’s replaced by his Bournemouth team-mate Eunan O’Kane.
GOAL! Ireland 1-1 Netherlands (De Jong)
Moments after coming on, Luuk de Jong heads Netherlands level after Duffy is caught ball watching. Willems with the ball in from the left and that will disappoint Martin O’Neill.
Duffy was caught out there as the substitute was left in acres of space in the six-yard box and he made no mistake. Four minutes left on the clock.
Ireland look for a winner. Eunan O’Kane gets a low shot away but it’s relatively straightforward for the ‘keeper. Four minutes of injury time.
Setanta Sports give the man of the match award to Harry Arter with Keith Andrews saying he has given O’Neill ‘food for thought’ with his performance tonight.
Shane Duffy had a couple of sights of goal tonight.
Full-time: Ireland 1-1 Netherlands
Ireland will be disappointed not to have held on for the victory but it was a good workout for Martin O’Neill’s men and the manager can take a lot of positives from certain aspects of this performance.
The players are embarking on a lap around the stadium to show their appreciation for the support tonight and throughout the campaign.
It’s onto Cork now for Tuesday’s final friendly against Belarus.
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I agree with Andy !! Delaney out !!
@Nightowl: MON, Keane and King need to go too. They don’t seem to take any responsibility for the performances and when questioned they become aggressive and belligerent. If it’s ALL the players fault, why do we need a manager in the first place?
As a League of Ireland person, I find the disregard shown towards the domestic league very frustrating. With the continued and ever increasing globalization of the English Premier League, the League of Ireland is the way forward for players to be developed.
It just strikes me as bizarre that to have a chance of playing senior international football for the Republic of Ireland, you must be playing your football *outside* of the Republic of Ireland.
Even at underage level, the signs aren’t great. At the Under-17 Euros over the summer, just one player in the Irish squad played his club football in Ireland! (In fairness to O’Neill and Keane though, they do attend League of Ireland matches semi-regularly.)
@James Clancy: The infamous magic plane.
Underage teams and management actually give reasons for optimism.
@Eamonn Duggan: Indeed. Amazing what that magic plane can do. Three weeks after leaving the League of Ireland to join a British club, an Irish player is suddenly called up to the senior international team.
Yes, the underage teams and management give reasons for optimism. The U17s were unlucky to lose to the Dutch on penalties, who went on to win the tournament and Cork City’s Colin T O’Brien doing good things there. Also, the U19s qualifying for the Elite Round of the European Championships with a game to spare, so there’s definitely hope!
I would love to see a day where at least a few players in a competitive Republic of Ireland senior starting XI play their club football in the League of Ireland. Alas, I don’t think that will ever happen.
How long can someone sit on the FAI council, should be a maximum of 10 years ( 2×5 year terms ) , fresh members will bring fresh ideas, also an age limit maybe
Bottom line is we don’t prioritize technique to the degree we need with our kids. Quote from English Championship club recruitment manager – ‘Irish kids are very physical and have great attitude, but they’re behind technically’. Wenger says technique is developed between the ages of 8-12. Our kids at that age are in school so 2 training sessions and a match every week. We don’t have enough contact hours to dramatically improve their technique at training. So what they do on their own is the key. We need to give them the tools to make the best use of their time with the ball on their own in the garden/park. Drills & programme to work on solo. Lots of kids with desire. But a 10 year old has to figure it out by himself. We are failing them. Allied to our strengths, we could be great.
@Adrian O’Farrell: I could not agree with you more. Be it soccer or GAA young players are left fend for themselves. By that I mean not all young players develop at same rate and usually the stronger more developed are kind of taken as a granted for whole group and little “johnny” is left to catch up at his own rate. This is when weaker players get left behind and tend to drop out of sports altogether in turn leaving groups short on numbers in some cases with smaller clubs.
Well said Andy. Couldn’t have said it better myself. We need a visionary running the FAI. Delaney is out on the piss at posh functions acting like a big-shot while football in this country is stuck in the dark ages.
We need to copy the model in Belgium. They are a small nation producing some of the best players on the planet on a consistent basis. Why not go out and get someone from their football association who can come in and replace Delaney as head of the FAI and shake things up and drag football in this country up with the times? At least they’d be earning that astronomical salary that Delaney is on instead of stealing a living from the association as is currently happening.
Just look at the level our rugby players are at from IRFU putting the right structures in place over the past 15 years. I would think our rugby team was at a similarly low ebb about 20yrs ago but with a smaller playing pool and less options. This is achievable if the right people lead the way.
I think everyone has blinkers on, bottom line is while all kids in every village and town in Ireland have Hurley’ in there hand from the age that the can hold one and at weekends have blitz, training, matches etc, kids in England are doing the same playing soccer, so while the hurlers are lining the Gaa’s pockets, the football players in England and the rest of Europe etc are trying to make a career for themselves and line there own. So I guess Martin and Roy can only pee with the C••k they got.
@Brian O Connell: tis all for the parish!! We don’t want no foreign sports here.
I think we should bring back Steve Staunton with more experience he might be good for the job or players like Paul McGrath, Damien duff or Robbie Keanu as manager.
@Gnb: you’re joking right?