Euro 2016 Qualifier - Ireland 1 - 1 Poland
- Gareth O'Reilly
- Sun, Mar 29 2015
A late show and an impressive second half performance managed to secure Ireland a vital point in their 1-1 draw with Group D leaders Poland on Sunday night. Shane Long became the man that saved what could well have been the end of Ireland’s chances to secure qualification had a defeat being the final result.
The game as expected did not start in the most entertaining of fashions as it took an entire ten minutes for either side to muster up a shot. When it did finally come from the boot of Wes Hoolahan, the shot was skewed horribly wide.
Despite winning the battle in terms of noise in the opening 20 minutes, the away side were not winning the battle on the pitch. Their opening shot came just seconds before the Aviva Stadium clock ticked over to twenty minutes as a Maciej Rybus free kick was headed poorly wide by Grzegorz Krychowiak.
The scoring was opened not long after when a horrendous mistake was made at the back between Robbie Brady and Marc Wilson who gifted the ball to Slawomir Peszko on the right hand side of the box leaving the winger the simple job of powering the ball beyond the hapless Shay Given.
The game lacked pace and urgency from both sides following that goal with the two nations exchanging free kicks that failed to hit the target. The Irish fans almost had something to cheer about when Seamus Coleman got in behind the Polish defence but the former Sligo Rovers player failed to show the skill that made him Everton’s Player of the Year last season as the men in red and white thwarted his attempts to get at Lukasz Fabianski.
With half time approaching the Irish fans finally found their voice as a flurry of near misses by Brady and Walters finally culminated in McGeady trying to lob the ball over Fabianski, the end result being a goal kick for the Poles.
Ireland started the second half clearly with the words of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane still ringing in their ears as soon after the recommencement of the game a Robbie Brady cross was deflected onto the Polish bar, with Fabianski hopelessly rooted to the spot.
With the away side beginning to lose parts of their first half discipline Ireland attempted to take advantage, however unlike against the USA Robbie Brady failed to curl a free kick beyond the keeper from an almost identical position.
Finally a shot on target came from Ireland when Marc Wilson forced Fabianski to save his header from a Robbie Brady corner. The Swansea City goalkeeper didn’t have to move though as the shot fell straight into his grateful hands.
It was McGeady who was first to make way for the Irish but one could hardly blame the Irish fans for wondering had O’Neill possibly made an error when selecting Brady and Hoolahan from the start.
It would be that substitution that would almost, almost, inspire Ireland to open their goalscoring account for the evening but McClean’s cross which found Keane would rebound back off the post with Fabianski once again struggling to get to the ball.
With Poland not offering much Ireland continued to push on as Keane and Walters tried to link up on a number of occasions without success.
With less than ten minutes left the ball fell to Seamus Coleman in the perfect position, just inside the box on the right hand side, but much to the dismay and frustration of the Irish fans the right back sliced his effort wide.
The Irish players were now realising that they not only deserved to be level but they also deserved to be in front, however misfiring Brady’s overhit cross just grew more groans from Irish supporters both inside the stadium and watching at home.
Then in added time the late show that has been an ever present since Martin O’Neill took over as manager once again showed itself. Brady the architect as he whipped a corner to the back post, Hoolahan was once again just like against the Germans, the man to retrieve it and Shane Long became Ireland’s latest hero as he rescued a point to spur the fans into life as a chorus of ‘ole, ole, ole, ole’ began spiral out around the Aviva Stadium.
Republic of Ireland: Shay Given, Seamus Coleman, Marc Wilson, John O’Shea, Robbie Brady; Wes Hoolahan, Glenn Whelan (Shane Long 83), James McCarthy, Aidan McGeady (James McClean 68); Robbie Keane, Jon Walters.
Subs Not Used: David Forde, Kieran Westwood, Ciaran Clark, David Meyler, Harry Arter, Cyrus Christie, Stephen Ward, Stephen Quinn, Daryl Murphy, Richard Keogh.
Yellow Cards: Hoolahan (25), O’Shea (32), Coleman (45), Wilson (70), McCarthy (85)
Poland: Lukasz Fabianski, Pawel Olkowski, Lukasz Szukala, Kamil Gilk, Jakub Wawrzyniak; Slawomir Peszko (Michal Kucharczyk 87), Grzegorz Krychowiak, Tomasz Jodlowiec, Maciej Rybus; Arkadiusz Milik (Sebastian Mila 83), Robert Lewandowski.
Subs Not Used: Wojciech Szczesny, Artur Boruc, Thiago Cionek, Marcin Komorowski, Karol Linetty, Lukasz, Teodorczyk, Krzysztof Maczynski, Rafal Janicki, Maciej Gajos, Gregorz Wojtkowiak.
Yellow Cards: Glik (15), Szukala (59)
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (SWE)
Attendance: 51,700(sold out)
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Jonathan Walters (Republic of Ireland)
About Gareth O'Reilly
Gareth is the Editor of Extratime.ie. Gareth began as a normal reporter covering games all over Dublin before being asked to help out with behind the scene activities and eventually moving into the role of …
Subs
Subs
P | Team | Pd | W | D | L | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Germany | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 22 |
2 | Poland | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 21 |
3 | Rep. Of Ireland | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 18 |
4 | Scotland | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
5 | Georgia | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 9 |
6 | Gibraltar | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
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