Paul Doyle reports from Lansdowne Road
Rep. of Ireland 2
Iran 0
Ireland will take a two goal lead to Tehran next week, but they will also travel with the knowledge that a performance of similar shabbiness to tonight’s one could seriously jeopardise their chances of visiting Japan next summer.
A first half penalty from Ian Harte and a second half strike from Robbie Keane could well have been cancelled out by Iran’s lively striker Ali Karimi had Shay Given not produced two outstanding saves.
Ireland began is disjointed fashion and didn’t muster a single shot in the first half hour. Iran defended in numbers and Ireland’s constant attempts to find Niall Quinn’s head from distance were thwarted by the poverty of the crosses. Kevin Kilbane didn’t look fully fit was particularly guilty in the early periods but he was by no means the only culprit.
Indeed, there were so many Irish players just giving the ball away that captain Roy Keane at times appeared to be almost frothing with rage - Hamed Kavianpour was soon to feel the force of that frustration when Keane crunched into him after the ball had gone. Somehow the Brazilian referee deemed not to give the yellow card.
Ireland’s first half performance was perhaps worse than the first 45 minutes against Andorra and the worrying thing was that tonight’s opposition look far more competent than the ultimately dreadful Andorrans. Robust in the challenge and composed on the ball the Iranians also showed much more ambition than Andorra and broke rapidly from deep on several occasions.
In fact, it was the visitors who conjured the first shot of the game in the 23rd minute. It wasn’t much of an effort, Karim Bagheri’s shot piffling wide from 25 yards, but the efficiency with which he shrugged aside Jason McAteer to create the opening gave cause for concern.
Five minutes later Ireland summoned an incisive response. McAteer, at last, found Quinn with a cross and the big man nodded it down for Robbie Keane on the six yard box who took it on his knee before directing a weak shot on target but into the hands of goalkeeper Mirzapour.
Mirzapour was proving quite an irritant for the Irish. Not only was he saving and punching the ball clear with surprising effectiveness, but he followed up such feats by prostrating himself on the ground for as long as possible, drawing the boos of the crowd but not the anger of the Brazilian referee.
As the game ticked towards the interval the home crowd had fallen quite silent compared to the 3,500 Iranian fans who were clearly dubulant by their side’s tidy display.
Finally one minute before the break Ireland made the precious break through. Rezaei undeniably tripped Jason McAteeer on the edge of the box, giving Ian Harte the opportunity to finally slam one past the Iranian ‘keeper.
Ireland started the second half much more spiritedly and on 51 minutes Robbie Keane extended the Irish lead. Harte was shaping up to curl a free kick in from the right hand side when manager Mick McCarthy rushed to the sideline and ordered McAteer to hit it, so as to change the angle of the cross. The Sunderland clubman duly flighted the ball towards the penalty spot and when it rebounded to the edge of the box Keane blasted a half-volley into the roof of the net.
There then followed a brief frenzy of Irish attacking during which it seemed they might make the second leg redundant. Kevin Kilbane smacked a rasper from 30 yards but the ‘keeper collected it well. Moments later Kilbane was again at the end of a fluent Irish move, this time involving Robbie Keane and McAteer but again he was foiled by Mirzapour who sprang like a cobra to tip the winger’s fizzer over the bar.
But just as the Irish sensed blood, Iran surged forward and almost delivered a devastating sucker punch. A straight forward build up in the middle of the park suddenly became dangerous when Ali Karimi spun around Steve Staunton and found himself clean through on the Irish goal. For once, Karimi’s touch let him down as he prodded the ball fractionally too far in front of him allowing Given to smother the ball bravely.
Just two minutes later Karimi’s trickery tore another hole in the home defence but again Given sparred Irish blushes by majestically turning a low drive around the posts.
As if the players were determined to excuse themselves for the bleakness of the first half they produced more excitement only seconds later. Kilbane whipped a deep cross in from the left wing which Mirzapour came for and missed but, McAteer managed to connect with it but his downward header bounced off the ground and just over the bar.
After that 15 minute flurry the goal chances dried up again somewhat. Kilbane did have another crack at goal after more positive work from McAteer and Matt Holland but the truth is that it was the Iranian’s who exerted most of the pressure in the remainder of the game.
Though Given was not called upon to show off any further, Iran demonstrated sufficient poise and verve to prove that if Ireland are as ragged in Tehran as they were in Dublin another play-off disappointment might just be possible. However, if they do manage to raise their game to the standards reached earlier in this campaign they can be confident of heading out East for the mother of all tournaments.
IRELAND: Given, Finnan, Breen, Staunton, Harte, McAteer, Roy Keane, Holland, Kilbane, Robbie Keane, Niall Quinn. Subs: Gary Kelly, Cunningham, Connolly, Kinsella, Carsley, Morrison, Kiely.
IRAN: Mirzapour, Mahdavikia, Golmohammadi, Peyravani, Rezaei, Kavianpour, Bagheri, Minavand, Karimi, Daei, Vahedinikbakht. Subs: Nakoonam, Dinohammadi, Khaziravi, Hashemian, Samereh, Rahbarifard, Fatemi.