Republic of Ireland 0
England 2
THE EARLY MESSAGE from Ireland’s new managerial era: the beatings will continue until morale improves.
Irish football has evidently not yet paid its debts to the baleful Gods. This sun-dappled afternoon against England quickly became a show trial, where the suffering was precisely calibrated for maximum pain. An absurdly dominant England performance in which the goals were scored by Declan Rice and Jack Grealish. Seriously.
Ireland improved in the second half so the scoreboard did not carry the humiliation the first half augured, but that was at least partly down to England’s waning interest. Heimir Hallgrimsson will be judged against opponents of much lesser standing than England, but his task with this group of earnest players is enormous.
England’s right-wing press entertained themselves on the eve of the game by confecting an outrage over Lee Carsley’s decision to maintain his career-long decision not to sing the national anthem, easy fodder for the Telegraph and Daily Mail, who have lately been at a loss without a tory Prime Minister in office. Perhaps they feel the post of England manager is one public role they can still influence.
Carsley gives the impression of being thoroughly disinterested in this nonsense but, regrettably for any England manager, the nonsense is always interested in them. Carsley then came out for the game and accidentally sat on the Irish bench.
Heimir Hallgrimsson has approached this international window less as a manager and more of an external consultant: he has come in to sit in the background and take a good look at how everything runs before making any decisions. Hence he allowed John O’Shea pick the squad and he stuck with O’Shea’s placeholder system, which was the same approach which cost Stephen Kenny his job. But hey, if we keep doing the same thing it has to work at some point, right?
Hallgrimsson was asked about his victory over a (far inferior) England at Euro 2016 and spoke mystically of it being “one of those days”, in which everything Iceland tried worked. Hence if Ireland were to have their own version Jayson Molumby needed to score when unmarked at the back post after only four minutes, when Robbie Brady’s corner glanced off a body in the six-yard box and fell to him. The genesis of the corner was the new regime’s calling card, that is play in the ways Stephen Kenny rejected. Caoimhín Kelleher took an age to stroll to a free-kick on the edge of his own box before knocking it up the line, where Matt Doherty flicked it on to Chiedozie Ogbene, whose cross forced the corner.
But still, blood squirted and pulses drummed around the Aviva as the crowd rose to meet the occasion’s significance, creating the kind of noise that hadn’t been heard in the ground for a long time. All of the English players were jeered, but those that met Declan Rice and Jack Grealish were of an altogether different intensity. Jayson Molumby meanwhile squared up to Grealish and for a moment we could have fooled ourselves that this would be one of those insurgent glories plucked from our past.
Alas. A new manager has not shaken Ireland out of their remarkable ability to concede at the first sign of opposition pressure. Eleven hectic minutes had played out when Trent Alexander-Arnold pinged a glorious pass through the Irish defence for Anthony Gordon, who instantly found himself one-on-one with Kelleher.
Kelleher saved brilliantly, and Collins then threw himself at Kane to block the follow up, only to see the ball break on the penalty spot to WhoelsebutDeclan Rice, who smashed the ball into the top corner with a stunning kind of precision. He then jogged to the England fans, arms outstretched in ostentatious non-celebration celebration, as if he’d just scored against West Ham.
This did not rouse Ireland into action, who contrived to turn their vanishingly rare attacking opportunities into England chances. When Robbie Brady smashed his free-kick into the wall, he and Molumby got in each other’s way as they tried to volley the rebound at goal. England then streaked away in a four v two, and Kelleher was forced into a superb, splayed save at Kane’s feet.
That knocked Ireland out of any attacking ambition, and what followed sucked the energy from the stadium. Ireland crouched away from the ball in their shape and allowed England knock the ball around, unhindered. This was a dream development for the travelling fans, who ran through a medley of old favourites, including Rule Brittania, Fuck the Pope and the IRA, and God Save the King. It was during these seeming unending spells of possession that the Irish crowd seemed to lose the ability even to boo Rice or Grealish.
The second goal soon arrived, with Rice given acres of space to stride forward popping passes left and right: he took a one-two with Mainoo and pulled the ball back to the edge of the box for Grealish, who rolled the ball into the bottom corner. Unlike Rice, he ran to the England fans and celebrated.
Ireland were largely an irrelevance for the rest of the half, a fact summed up as England wound down the clock to half-time: Alexander-Arnold simply stood still with his foot on the ball in the centre-circle, without an Irish player coming to challenge him.
The second half continued in this dreary fashion, with the Aviva crowd grumbling and chafing at the many occasions in which Ireland simply kicked the ball away once they won it back. An injury to Seamus Coleman led to a double change however, with Ogbene swapped to right wing-back. It sparked something, with Szmodics firing narrowly wide from an Ogbene pull-back quickly after the change.
England’s substitutes were eager to impress Carsley, and twice Kelleher saved well from Jarrod Bowen and then from Bukayo Saka. The FAI maintained their daft policy of awarding the Man of the Match award to the Irish player, and so it went to Ogbene, Kelleher’s only rival for Ireland’s best performer.
It would have been fairer and still technically within their own rules to have given it to Rice instead.
It’s only up from here. Perhaps.
Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Matt Doherty (Jason Knight, 56′), Seamus Coleman (captain) (Jake O’Brien, 56′) Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, Robbie Brady (Evan Ferguson, 82′); Jayson Molumby, Will Smallbone (Alan Browne, 75′); Chiedozie Ogbene, Adam Idah (Kasey McAteer, 75′), Sammie Szmodics
England: Jordan Pickford; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harry Maguire, Marc Guehi, Levi Colwill; Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo (Angel Gomes, 77′); Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish (Morgan Gibbs-White, 77′); Anthony Gordon (Ebreche Eze, 77′); Harry Kane
Referee: José María Sánchez (Spain)
