Paul Doyel reports from Lansdowne Road
Mick McCarthy talked with his usual humor and realism after tonight’s victory over Iran but his body language betrayed a man who had a few frights and a lot of frustration in the previous ninety minutes.
Twitching nervously and still taut the Ireland manager professed to be "very pleased with the 2-0 win."
"I would have settled for that before the match. We played well against a very resolute, well organised team. With five across the back and four in the middle they made it very difficult for us to break them down."
If the manager seemed tense during and after the game so to did some of his players but McCarthy insisted that that was only to be expected.
"You have to remember the stakes tonight were massive. I defy you to find me many players who can go out into that sort of occasion and atmosphere and not be a little effected by it."
"Having said that I had never envisaged that we would just go out and attack, attack, attack. I went out to see them and I’ve been telling you all week that they have good players with good technique and it was never going to be easy."
"They defended superbly well. They have some excellent headers of the ball at the back and they dealt with Quinny well."
Indeed, McCarthy revealed that the efficiency with which the Iranian’s eliminated the aerial threat prompted him to effect a minor reshuffle at half-time.
"I told Kevin Kilbane and Jason McAteer to push on more to give us another point of attack rather than just bashing it into Niall Quinn every time. I also told Robbie (Keane) to drop behind Quinn a little bit both to improve our attacking options and to give us more security in the middle."
Next Thursday, with 120,000 expectant Iranian fans urging their team to build on tonight’s promising performance, McCarthy is aware that tonight’s opponents are set to become even more dangerous but he says that could be to Ireland’s advantage.
"It would suit us that they have to attack. That will allow us to open them up more easily. They are a very offensive outfit at home so will certainly have to defend well but they will have to be aware of us going forward as well.
The Iranian manager, Miloslav Blazevic, meanwhile, insisted that his side are well capable of overturning their two goal deficit even if the logic he used to back up this assertion was not especially convincing.
"Ireland is the best team in Europe. Iran is the best team in Asia. Asia is bigger than Europe so surely Iran must be better."