JOHN O’SHEA’S HOPES that Ireland would once again be horrible to play against were not realised in Aveiro tonight.
No, we are still stuck on the horrible to watch stage of this evolution.
This was another night in which Ireland were utterly outclassed by a team that will admittedly contend for the European Championships, which is another of the game’s grand celebrations to which we are not invited.
Cristiano Ronaldo will, as ever, elbow his way to centre-stage in Germany: two second-half goals tonight – the first one that might appear in his own end-of-career showreel – is proof that he’s ready to be central to Portuguese plans this summer.
Much of the pre-game talk centred on how Ireland must once again be ‘hard to beat’, with the results so far under O’Shea held up as proof we were once again trending back to our founding virtues. That notion didn’t survive tonight, though, and this was Ireland’s heaviest defeat since the 3-0 friendly hammering against England at an empty Wembley in 2020.
While you have to make allowances for the fact that this was an end-of-season friendly ahead of a tournament to which Ireland aren’t going, the size of the gap between these sides tonight when compared to their Algarve meeting in 2021 was jarring. On that night Stephen Kenny was denied a potentially transformative win by two injury-time goals by Ronaldo: tonight his brace came with Portugal already 1-0 up through Joao Felix and some shambolic Irish defending on a corner kick.
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O’Shea stuck with his recent precedent and did not overhaul his side, picking one similar to the one that finished against Hungary a week ago. Match-winner Troy Parrott got his chance from the start, as did Jake O’Brien and Liam Scales, included among Ireland’s back three having played the second half against Portugal.
Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, started for Portugal, who themselves shifted to a back three, a system Roberto Martinez played at Belgium and then junked early in his Portugal tenure. Having said Ireland would be good preparation for the European Championships in the sense they set-up in a similar system to group opponents Georgia, we may see this system when the sides meet in Germany.
Georgia will also surely not give away a goal as sloppily and dozily as Ireland did on 18 minutes here. Caoimhín Kelleher had bailed Ireland less than a minute before, throwing out his left leg to divert Joao Felix’ shot behind for a corner. Ireland then decided to simply not defend that corner, allowing the corner to go short while allowing Felix stand utterly unmarked in the penalty area. Fernandes picked him out and slammed the ball into the bottom corner with a gorgeously pure strike.
Liam Scales, Jake O'Brien, Caoimhín Kelleher and Seamus Coleman ahead of kick off. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Kelleher roared at the defence in front of him in arguably the greatest display of anger of his career so far.
Cristiano Ronaldo soon became a central part of the drama, winning a soft free-kick off Josh Cullen, who was pinged for a handball from point-blank range. Cullen was naturally aggrieved at the decision, with a grinning Ronaldo patting him on the head before driving his free-kick against Adam Idah’s, off whom the ball spun onto the post with Kelleher beaten.
Ireland, meanwhile, struggled to retain possession, with a rusty Sammie Szmodics looking off the pace. Like the opening goal against Hungary a week ago, their best moment came when Will Smallbone drifted into an attacking position down the right, threading a ball in behind for Idah, whose square pass was met by a stumbling Coleman and then rebounded to the striker, who smashed a shot into the side-netting. That was about all Ireland could offer in an attacking sense, as waves of Portuguese attacks kept on coming.
Ireland’s midfield duo of Smallbone and Cullen were outclassed but also completely overwhelmed, a situation exacerbated when wing-back Joao Cancelo drifted into midfield to add another dimension to their passing carousel.
But one of Portugal’s strengths is the variety to their game, and their ability to go long, and soon they started raining down pain on Ireland’s head. Rafael Leao skated inside Coleman and onto a cross-field pass before slamming the ball over the crossbar; Goncalo Inacio somehow planted a free-header wide from a sumptuous Fernandes cross; while just before the break Fernandes’ laid off a Joao Neves’ arrow onto Ronaldo, whose strike was parried and then gathered by Kelleher.
Portugal made five half-time changes but continued to mix up their play, and Ronaldo quickly gave their direct play a sheen of beauty. Collecting a floating Ruben Neves pass near the top right-hand corner of the box, Ronaldo took a couple of step overs before jinking left inside Scales and curling an outrageous shot with his ‘weaker’ left foot into the top corner. Kelleher had no reason to complain this time: Ronaldo’s shot was inch-perfect and simply couldn’t be stopped.
The only reprieve came in baffling fashion and from the VAR. When O’Brien took a heavy touch, Jota pounced and then fell under contact: the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box, the VAR told him to go to the monitor to check for a potential penalty, who then gave Ireland a free, believing Jota fouled O’Brien first.
Jota’s tenacity soon reaped rewards, however: driving down the left, he lost the ball to a combination of Coleman and Smallbone before pinching it back, squaring it for Ronaldo who swept in a third goal, again with his left foot.
Ireland, now slicked with sweat, crimson-faced and blowing hard, were now facing an end-of-season hammering.
O’Shea made a triple sub to freshen things up, with Tom Cannon among those to enter the fray for his senior debut. Having been dissuaded from chasing an England career, he chased the first of what will doubtless be many long hopeful balls. He impressively killed the ball, shifted the ball outside Danilo Pereira and saw a snapshot hit the side-netting.
Three happily did not become four, with Kelleher brilliantly tipping away a Fernandes shot before he escaped some lesser-spotted Ronaldo pressing, wrestling him out of the way and hacking the ball clear when his Cruyff turn went awry.
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This was another reminder of the frightening chasm between Ireland and the best in Europe. But how is this surprising when your football association can’t even appoint a manager on time?
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Diogo Dalot (Nelson Semedo, HT); Antonio Silva, Goncalo Inacio, Pepe (Danilo, HT); Joao Cancelo (Nuno Mendes, HT); Bruno Fernandes, Joao Neves; Joao Felix (Ruben Neves, HT), Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leao (Diogo Jota, HT)
Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Seamus Coleman; Dara O’Shea, Jake O’Brien, Liam Scales; Robbie Brady (Callum O’Dowda, 52′); Josh Cullen, Will Smallbone; Sammie Szmodics, Troy Parrott (Mikey Johnston, 52′); Adam Idah (Tom Cannon, 52′)
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Ronaldo scores twice as Portugal outclass Ireland
Portugal 3
Republic of Ireland 0
JOHN O’SHEA’S HOPES that Ireland would once again be horrible to play against were not realised in Aveiro tonight.
No, we are still stuck on the horrible to watch stage of this evolution.
This was another night in which Ireland were utterly outclassed by a team that will admittedly contend for the European Championships, which is another of the game’s grand celebrations to which we are not invited.
Cristiano Ronaldo will, as ever, elbow his way to centre-stage in Germany: two second-half goals tonight – the first one that might appear in his own end-of-career showreel – is proof that he’s ready to be central to Portuguese plans this summer.
Much of the pre-game talk centred on how Ireland must once again be ‘hard to beat’, with the results so far under O’Shea held up as proof we were once again trending back to our founding virtues. That notion didn’t survive tonight, though, and this was Ireland’s heaviest defeat since the 3-0 friendly hammering against England at an empty Wembley in 2020.
While you have to make allowances for the fact that this was an end-of-season friendly ahead of a tournament to which Ireland aren’t going, the size of the gap between these sides tonight when compared to their Algarve meeting in 2021 was jarring. On that night Stephen Kenny was denied a potentially transformative win by two injury-time goals by Ronaldo: tonight his brace came with Portugal already 1-0 up through Joao Felix and some shambolic Irish defending on a corner kick.
O’Shea stuck with his recent precedent and did not overhaul his side, picking one similar to the one that finished against Hungary a week ago. Match-winner Troy Parrott got his chance from the start, as did Jake O’Brien and Liam Scales, included among Ireland’s back three having played the second half against Portugal.
Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, started for Portugal, who themselves shifted to a back three, a system Roberto Martinez played at Belgium and then junked early in his Portugal tenure. Having said Ireland would be good preparation for the European Championships in the sense they set-up in a similar system to group opponents Georgia, we may see this system when the sides meet in Germany.
Georgia will also surely not give away a goal as sloppily and dozily as Ireland did on 18 minutes here. Caoimhín Kelleher had bailed Ireland less than a minute before, throwing out his left leg to divert Joao Felix’ shot behind for a corner. Ireland then decided to simply not defend that corner, allowing the corner to go short while allowing Felix stand utterly unmarked in the penalty area. Fernandes picked him out and slammed the ball into the bottom corner with a gorgeously pure strike.
Kelleher roared at the defence in front of him in arguably the greatest display of anger of his career so far.
Cristiano Ronaldo soon became a central part of the drama, winning a soft free-kick off Josh Cullen, who was pinged for a handball from point-blank range. Cullen was naturally aggrieved at the decision, with a grinning Ronaldo patting him on the head before driving his free-kick against Adam Idah’s, off whom the ball spun onto the post with Kelleher beaten.
Ireland, meanwhile, struggled to retain possession, with a rusty Sammie Szmodics looking off the pace. Like the opening goal against Hungary a week ago, their best moment came when Will Smallbone drifted into an attacking position down the right, threading a ball in behind for Idah, whose square pass was met by a stumbling Coleman and then rebounded to the striker, who smashed a shot into the side-netting. That was about all Ireland could offer in an attacking sense, as waves of Portuguese attacks kept on coming.
Ireland’s midfield duo of Smallbone and Cullen were outclassed but also completely overwhelmed, a situation exacerbated when wing-back Joao Cancelo drifted into midfield to add another dimension to their passing carousel.
But one of Portugal’s strengths is the variety to their game, and their ability to go long, and soon they started raining down pain on Ireland’s head. Rafael Leao skated inside Coleman and onto a cross-field pass before slamming the ball over the crossbar; Goncalo Inacio somehow planted a free-header wide from a sumptuous Fernandes cross; while just before the break Fernandes’ laid off a Joao Neves’ arrow onto Ronaldo, whose strike was parried and then gathered by Kelleher.
Portugal made five half-time changes but continued to mix up their play, and Ronaldo quickly gave their direct play a sheen of beauty. Collecting a floating Ruben Neves pass near the top right-hand corner of the box, Ronaldo took a couple of step overs before jinking left inside Scales and curling an outrageous shot with his ‘weaker’ left foot into the top corner. Kelleher had no reason to complain this time: Ronaldo’s shot was inch-perfect and simply couldn’t be stopped.
The only reprieve came in baffling fashion and from the VAR. When O’Brien took a heavy touch, Jota pounced and then fell under contact: the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box, the VAR told him to go to the monitor to check for a potential penalty, who then gave Ireland a free, believing Jota fouled O’Brien first.
Jota’s tenacity soon reaped rewards, however: driving down the left, he lost the ball to a combination of Coleman and Smallbone before pinching it back, squaring it for Ronaldo who swept in a third goal, again with his left foot.
Ireland, now slicked with sweat, crimson-faced and blowing hard, were now facing an end-of-season hammering.
O’Shea made a triple sub to freshen things up, with Tom Cannon among those to enter the fray for his senior debut. Having been dissuaded from chasing an England career, he chased the first of what will doubtless be many long hopeful balls. He impressively killed the ball, shifted the ball outside Danilo Pereira and saw a snapshot hit the side-netting.
Three happily did not become four, with Kelleher brilliantly tipping away a Fernandes shot before he escaped some lesser-spotted Ronaldo pressing, wrestling him out of the way and hacking the ball clear when his Cruyff turn went awry.
This was another reminder of the frightening chasm between Ireland and the best in Europe. But how is this surprising when your football association can’t even appoint a manager on time?
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Diogo Dalot (Nelson Semedo, HT); Antonio Silva, Goncalo Inacio, Pepe (Danilo, HT); Joao Cancelo (Nuno Mendes, HT); Bruno Fernandes, Joao Neves; Joao Felix (Ruben Neves, HT), Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leao (Diogo Jota, HT)
Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Seamus Coleman; Dara O’Shea, Jake O’Brien, Liam Scales; Robbie Brady (Callum O’Dowda, 52′); Josh Cullen, Will Smallbone; Sammie Szmodics, Troy Parrott (Mikey Johnston, 52′); Adam Idah (Tom Cannon, 52′)
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
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easily beaten International Friendly Portugal Republic Of Ireland