Rep of Ireland 0 Argentina 1:WHEN NAMING his squad for this game a few weeks back Giovanni Trapattoni claimed that if Ireland hadn't missed out so cruelly on a place at the World Cup, the team might well have been good enough to make the quarter-finals.
We’ll never know, of course, but on the strength of last night’s game at the Aviva Stadium, Maradona is bound to wish it was the veteran Italian rather than Joachim Löw he’d gone head to head with at the start of July.
Hired to add a bit of glamour to what was effectively an opening night party, the Argentinians rather spoiled things just a little for most of the home support by winning and, much worse, threatening for a while to do so very well.
At half-time, critics of the ousted coach might have argued there was more balance and defensive cohesion to the visiting side here than there had been at the World Cup but that argument was undermined to a considerable extent late on when the Argentinian back four came under sustained pressure for the first time y over the course of the evening. Robbie Keane (whose 15-month -old son Robert was the mascot at the match) twice came close to celebrating his 100th appearance for his country with his 44th goal.
By then, however, the new man in charge, Sergio Baptista, had replaced more than half of his of his team and the reality is the Irish generally looked a fair bit inferior.
Through the second half, to their credit, they tried hard and, for spells, succeeded in raising the tempo of the contest which made life a little more difficult for their opponents. With Andy Keogh producing a lively performance up front after replacing the much less effective Cillian Sheridan, their efforts even yielded a couple of half chances.
The Dubliner even came close to grabbing an equaliser for the Irish as the game moved into its closing stages when, almost out of nothing, Keith Treacy announced his arrival on the international stage by winning the ball well out wide on the left and turning the ball towards the six yard area where Keogh valiantly threw himself into the attempt to turn it home.
A goal then would have delighted the crowd but not half as much as one in the dying minutes when Keane had a couple of scrambled attempts at beating Sergio Romero but couldn’t quite pull it off.
Had he pulled one out of the bag – especially the attempted overhead kick – it would have completed a fairly dramatic turnaround for hosts who had seemed a little like spectators for long stretches of the opening period.
All through that first half they were guilty of giving their opponents too much time on the ball and suffered as a consequences.
Allowed space in which to operate, the Argentinians moved the ball with both ease and elegance, repeatedly working their way from back to front almost unchallenged before carving the Irish back four open with a beautifully weighted diagonal ball.
Lionel Messi created his fair share of chances and his contribution was generously acknowledged when he departed just short of an hour in. But his side showed plenty of versatility as they harassed their hosts around Shay Given’s area with Gonzalo Higuain happy, it seemed, to drop deep in order to turn provider and a number of players, notably Gabriel Heinze, looking to get behind the Irish back four so as to act as a target for the passer.
More than once, the approach nearly paid off although the John O’Shea and Richard Dunne stood up to the challenge well enough for the most part and Paul McShane made a habit of digging himself out of a hole rather nicely with well-executed blocks.
In front of them, the midfield did their best to retain possession but found little in terms of an outlet up front with most of what passed for Irish approach work at that stage consisting of high and hopeful balls towards young Sheridan who rarely came out on top in his duels with Walter Samuel and co.
Behind him, Paul Green against looked useful with the Derby County midfielder energetically looking to hustle the ball away from opponents. Around him, though, too many team mates seemed content to stand off the visitors, at least prior to the interval.
By then, they were chasing the game due to a goal that was something of a travesty in so far as the impressive Angel Di Maria clearly looked to be a yard or so offside when Higuain took the sting out of Romero’s long kick out. The Real Madrid star duly fired home with a nicely judged lob that clipped the inside of the post on the way in after clearing Shay Given.
But the visitors dominated in almost every area and deserved some reward for the quality of some of their approach work.
Still, the Irish could well argue that they deserved something given the scale of their improvement as the night wore on.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Given (Manchester City); McShane (Hull City), O'Shea (Manchester Utd), Dunne (Aston Villa), Kilbane (Hull City); Fahey (Birmingham City); Andrews (Blackburn Rovers), Green (Derby County), Duff (Fulham); Keane (Spurs), Sheridan (Celtic). Subs: Keogh (Wolves) for Sheridan and Cunningham (Manchester City) for Kilbane (57 mins), Treacy (Preston North End) for Fahey (77), Gibson (Manchester Utd) for Andrews (68).
ARGENTINA:Romero (AZ); Burdiso (Inter), Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Samuel (Inter), Heinze (Marseille); Banega (Valencia), Mascherano (Liverpool), Gago (Real Madrid); Higuain (Real Madrid), Messi (Barcelona), Di Maria (Real Madrid). Subs: Zabaleta (Man City) for Burdisso and Milito (Inter Milan) for Higuain (half-time), Lavezzi (Napoli) for Messi (58 mins), Insua (Liverpool) for Heinze (72), Gutierrez (Newcastle) for Di Maria (75), Coloccini (Newcastle) for Samuel (82).
Referee:P Rasmussen (Denmark).
Attendance:45,200
ON THE MEND
REPUBLIC of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni is expected to remain in hospital until early next week as he recovers from a stomach operation. The Italian missed last night’s match after undergoing minor surgery to relieve abdominal pain.
Tests revealed the problem was linked to scar tissue from a previous operation. After consulting with the 71-year-old’s surgeon, a decision was taken to perform minor surgery in order to ease the pain.
“Giovanni Trapattoni has had a successful and straightforward minor surgical procedure performed in the Mater Hospital,” the FAI said yesterday afternoon. “ It is anticipated he will remain in hospital to recover over the weekend.”
Trapattoni is likely to return for Ireland’s opening game of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign in Armenia on September 3rd.
