LEAGUE B OR Not League B is no longer the question: Ireland are staying up.
Tonight they secured their status in a manner consistent with many of their dreary League B days: undercutting their own promising play against inferior opponents by stepping on a rake at the first opportunity. But having conceded for the second time in a week from Bulgaria’s very first attack, Ireland again battled back to win the game.
This time the goals came in the second half, first from Evan Ferguson to re-establish Ireland’s aggregate lead and then by substitute Adam Idah, scoring off the bench in a rare opportunity under Hallgrimsson.
Idah pressed his finger to his lips in celebration in apparent direction at the Irish bench. Given two of Ireland’s forwards scored and the other, Troy Parrott, was man of the match, it seems the attacking promise sown by Stephen Kenny is blooming under his successor.
This was another flawed victory but above all it was a victory, a fourth in six games and a third salvaged from arrears. Ireland’s next competitive action will be their first World Cup qualifier in September, and they have done enough this week to step into those games with hope.
After the 2-1 win on Thursday, Hallgrimsson unsurprisingly kept his tinkering to a minimum, swapping Jake O’Brien in for Dara O’Shea and started Evan Ferguson in place of Ryan Manning. His system remained the same: a 4-4-2 without the ball which shifted to a 3-4-2-1 in possession. Interestingly, Ferguson didn’t lead the line: he played as a number 10 behind Parrott.
Parrott made his early impact without needing to touch the ball. First he dummied smartly to allow Mikey Johnston and Finn Azaz play a one-two that was hacked behind for a corner, and shortly after he cleverly allowed a square pass roll across for Ferguson, whose first touch was a too heavy to allow for a snapshot.
These bookended a preppy Irish start. O’Brien had a header from Brady’s corner clawed away by the goalkeeper, with Collins close to steering in the rebound.
Hallgrimsson forecast yesterday that Bulgaria would have to do something different give their aggregate deficit, and forecast a high press. Instead Ireland did the pressing, but Bulgaria did shake things up, making seven changes and shifting to a back five. They pushed their left wing back high in the hope of distracting Matt Doherty to the point of freeing their talisman, Kiril Despodov.
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It made little early impact, and instead Ireland exploited the space that came with Bulgaria’s consequentially understaffed midfield. Ferguson and Azaz dropped off to link play, and Parrott came within inches of scoring when he steered the ball onto the post after a fast one-two between Azaz and Brady. The offside flag went up, but replays suggest the linesman was hasty.
But rather than prise Ireland open with the ingenuity of their new tactical set-up, Bulgaria knew they merely needed to do what every Irish opponent has to do: take a shot from outside the box. The moment arrived just before the half-hour mark, from their first corner. Despodov flighted the ball to Georgi Milanov, who arrived to the edge of the box in total isolation. Ireland were thus caught much too deep, and his first-time volley bounced off Collins and O’Brien before it fell for Valentin Antov. He calmly got the ball out of his feet and rolled the ball into the far corner. Kelleher stood still in a baffled kind of reproach.
Bulgaria score their opening goal. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
For the second-straight game, Ireland totally dominated and then allowed Bulgaria score with their first attack. It’s also the seventh time in eight games in which Ireland conceded the first goal. Whatever Hard to Beat looks like, this is not it.
The crowd were confounded into silence, taking a couple of long, empty seconds before they readjusted and roared their cries of rally. Ireland reassumed their control of possession: Parrott arced a header from Brady’s cross onto the roof of the net, while O’Brien met another corner cleanly but this time saw it cleared off the line.
The crowd did their best to maintain their resolve, but the defiance was nipped at all sides by an unease called experience: everyone had seen this movie too often under Kenny, where the Irish players knitted neat patterns between both boxes while being ruinously tame within them.
The Bulgaria goal levelled the tie on aggregate and thus raised the prospect of an extended night, and it got even longer at half-time, with the restart delayed by 10 minutes to allow fourth official Mehmet Turkmen warm up and replace the injured referee.
Bulgaria had more of the ball after the lengthy break but still Ireland fashioned chances. Johnston smashed a shot into the side-netting, and then Parrott pounced on a clumsy Bulgarian touch to set Ferguson away who, lacking raw pace and perhaps confidence, took his shot early and from outside the box. His skidding effort still forced a low save from Plamen Iliev, but shooting so early meant Ferguson slashed his own percentages.
The lame, fretting sportswriters around here then went a-clacking on their keyboards to speculate on the dwindling of Ferguson’s confidence, and what it might mean for Ireland in the short-term and Ferguson himself in the longer-term.
Might our Golden Boy be beaten down by the physicality of the Premier League and the callousness of the Let it Flow refs? Has the volatility of his club managers dulled his promise? Might this…not work out as we giddily thought it would when he scored that hat-trick against Newcastle? What if we all got too carrie-ah, he’s scored.
First he dropped off to the right channel from his new starting position, and then accelerated with conviction, popped the ball into Azaz and, without breaking stride, collected the return in the box and smashed the ball high and into the roof of the net.
It was a happy, jolting reminder of Ferguson’s quality.
Hallgrimsson didn’t give him too long to bask in the warm feeling. Eleven minutes after scoring, Ferguson was replaced by Jimmy Dunne. This was partly a chance to hand Dunne his debut, and Ireland closed ranks. They sat off in their 4-4-2 and, as in the second half in Plovdiv, asked Bulgaria to break them down.
Adam Idah celebrates. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Again they were unable to do so, and again Ireland carved out chances on the counter-attack. Tonight, though, they took them. When Azaz sent Sykes scarpering clear, he was forced wide but reset to pull a terrific cross to the back post, where Idah arrived on cue to tap it in.
Idah pressed his finger to his lips but left the rest of us at liberty say: League B, we will see you again.
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Ferguson and Idah goals secure League B status and another comeback win
Republic of Ireland 2
Bulgaria 1
Ireland win 4-2 on aggregate
LEAGUE B OR Not League B is no longer the question: Ireland are staying up.
Tonight they secured their status in a manner consistent with many of their dreary League B days: undercutting their own promising play against inferior opponents by stepping on a rake at the first opportunity. But having conceded for the second time in a week from Bulgaria’s very first attack, Ireland again battled back to win the game.
This time the goals came in the second half, first from Evan Ferguson to re-establish Ireland’s aggregate lead and then by substitute Adam Idah, scoring off the bench in a rare opportunity under Hallgrimsson.
Idah pressed his finger to his lips in celebration in apparent direction at the Irish bench. Given two of Ireland’s forwards scored and the other, Troy Parrott, was man of the match, it seems the attacking promise sown by Stephen Kenny is blooming under his successor.
This was another flawed victory but above all it was a victory, a fourth in six games and a third salvaged from arrears. Ireland’s next competitive action will be their first World Cup qualifier in September, and they have done enough this week to step into those games with hope.
After the 2-1 win on Thursday, Hallgrimsson unsurprisingly kept his tinkering to a minimum, swapping Jake O’Brien in for Dara O’Shea and started Evan Ferguson in place of Ryan Manning. His system remained the same: a 4-4-2 without the ball which shifted to a 3-4-2-1 in possession. Interestingly, Ferguson didn’t lead the line: he played as a number 10 behind Parrott.
Parrott made his early impact without needing to touch the ball. First he dummied smartly to allow Mikey Johnston and Finn Azaz play a one-two that was hacked behind for a corner, and shortly after he cleverly allowed a square pass roll across for Ferguson, whose first touch was a too heavy to allow for a snapshot.
These bookended a preppy Irish start. O’Brien had a header from Brady’s corner clawed away by the goalkeeper, with Collins close to steering in the rebound.
Hallgrimsson forecast yesterday that Bulgaria would have to do something different give their aggregate deficit, and forecast a high press. Instead Ireland did the pressing, but Bulgaria did shake things up, making seven changes and shifting to a back five. They pushed their left wing back high in the hope of distracting Matt Doherty to the point of freeing their talisman, Kiril Despodov.
It made little early impact, and instead Ireland exploited the space that came with Bulgaria’s consequentially understaffed midfield. Ferguson and Azaz dropped off to link play, and Parrott came within inches of scoring when he steered the ball onto the post after a fast one-two between Azaz and Brady. The offside flag went up, but replays suggest the linesman was hasty.
But rather than prise Ireland open with the ingenuity of their new tactical set-up, Bulgaria knew they merely needed to do what every Irish opponent has to do: take a shot from outside the box. The moment arrived just before the half-hour mark, from their first corner. Despodov flighted the ball to Georgi Milanov, who arrived to the edge of the box in total isolation. Ireland were thus caught much too deep, and his first-time volley bounced off Collins and O’Brien before it fell for Valentin Antov. He calmly got the ball out of his feet and rolled the ball into the far corner. Kelleher stood still in a baffled kind of reproach.
For the second-straight game, Ireland totally dominated and then allowed Bulgaria score with their first attack. It’s also the seventh time in eight games in which Ireland conceded the first goal. Whatever Hard to Beat looks like, this is not it.
The crowd were confounded into silence, taking a couple of long, empty seconds before they readjusted and roared their cries of rally. Ireland reassumed their control of possession: Parrott arced a header from Brady’s cross onto the roof of the net, while O’Brien met another corner cleanly but this time saw it cleared off the line.
The crowd did their best to maintain their resolve, but the defiance was nipped at all sides by an unease called experience: everyone had seen this movie too often under Kenny, where the Irish players knitted neat patterns between both boxes while being ruinously tame within them.
The Bulgaria goal levelled the tie on aggregate and thus raised the prospect of an extended night, and it got even longer at half-time, with the restart delayed by 10 minutes to allow fourth official Mehmet Turkmen warm up and replace the injured referee.
Bulgaria had more of the ball after the lengthy break but still Ireland fashioned chances. Johnston smashed a shot into the side-netting, and then Parrott pounced on a clumsy Bulgarian touch to set Ferguson away who, lacking raw pace and perhaps confidence, took his shot early and from outside the box. His skidding effort still forced a low save from Plamen Iliev, but shooting so early meant Ferguson slashed his own percentages.
The lame, fretting sportswriters around here then went a-clacking on their keyboards to speculate on the dwindling of Ferguson’s confidence, and what it might mean for Ireland in the short-term and Ferguson himself in the longer-term.
Might our Golden Boy be beaten down by the physicality of the Premier League and the callousness of the Let it Flow refs? Has the volatility of his club managers dulled his promise? Might this…not work out as we giddily thought it would when he scored that hat-trick against Newcastle? What if we all got too carrie-ah, he’s scored.
First he dropped off to the right channel from his new starting position, and then accelerated with conviction, popped the ball into Azaz and, without breaking stride, collected the return in the box and smashed the ball high and into the roof of the net.
It was a happy, jolting reminder of Ferguson’s quality.
Hallgrimsson didn’t give him too long to bask in the warm feeling. Eleven minutes after scoring, Ferguson was replaced by Jimmy Dunne. This was partly a chance to hand Dunne his debut, and Ireland closed ranks. They sat off in their 4-4-2 and, as in the second half in Plovdiv, asked Bulgaria to break them down.
Again they were unable to do so, and again Ireland carved out chances on the counter-attack. Tonight, though, they took them. When Azaz sent Sykes scarpering clear, he was forced wide but reset to pull a terrific cross to the back post, where Idah arrived on cue to tap it in.
Idah pressed his finger to his lips but left the rest of us at liberty say: League B, we will see you again.
Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Matt Doherty, Nathan Collins (captain), Jake O’Brien, Robbie Brady (Ryan Manning, 65′); Mikey Johnston (Adam Idah, 64′), Jason Knight (Jack Taylor, 82′), Josh Cullen, Finn Azaz; Troy Parrott (Mark Sykes, 65′), Evan Ferguson (Jimmy Dunne, 74′)
Bulgaria: Plamen Iliev; Nikolay Minkov, Simeon Petrov, Anton Nedyalkov, Fabian Nuernberger; Ilia Gruev, Valentin Antov; Marin Petkov (Radosan Kirilov, 75′), Georgi Milanov (Filip Krastev, 74′), Kiril Despodov; Bozhidar Kraev (Vladimir Nikolov, 59′)
Referee: Umut Meler (Turkiye) (Mehmet Turkmen, HT)
Attendance: 40,156
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