Republic of Ireland 0 Holland 0
Half-time report from Paul Doyle at Lansdowne Road
They said a draw might be good enough for Ireland but after 45 minutes of frenzied football at Lansdowne Road it is obvious that both Ireland and Holland have come here to attack in all senses of the word.
Mark Overmars said earlier in the week that failing to win this match would for him be worse than losing the semi-final of Euro 2000. And he showed his zeal after just 10 seconds when he got involved in an angry exchange with Roy Keane.
That set the tone for a tumultuous first half which has seen three bookings, one fractious, and several off the ball incidents, one of which resulted in the Dutch left back Arthur Numan being stretchered off the pitch clutching his left eye.
Amid the passion there was much excellent football, most of it coming from the visitors for the first 20 minutes at least. Indeed after just two minutes Patrick Kluivert, whose roving role, was posing tactical problems for Ireland was presented with a glorious opportunity to open the scoring. After Marc Overmars caught Gary Kelly in possession, Kluivert cantered through on goal but side footed his low shot just wide of Shay Given’s post.
Louis Van Gaal’s ultra offensive 4-2-1-3 formation was creating gaps all over the pitch with wingers Overmars and Boudewijn Zenden causing particular havoc.
Symptomatic of Holland’s greater spacial awareness was an incident in the 14th minute when Mark Van Bommell was able to chest down a Given kick-out on the half way line and stroll forward to the edge of the Irish box from where only the weakness of his shot spared Ireland.
Ireland however, regrouped and spent the latter period of the half on the attack. Both Kevin Kilbane and Jason McAteer tracked down the flanks while Robbie Keane and Damien Duff began to run the Dutch defence ragged. Roy Keane, of course, was imperious in the centre of the park.
Robbie Keane and Duff both had decent efforts saved by Edwin Van der Sar as Kilbane was denied a penalty after going down in the box by a challenge from Zenden.
The second half should be a battle of Titanic proportions if the first half was anything to go by.