Rep of Ireland 0 Australia 3: IF IT wasn't for the fact that his own side was beaten 6-1 by Albania, Cyprus coach Angelos Anastasiadis would surely have been pleased by the thought of last night's game at Thomond Park being the central plank of the Republic of Ireland's preparations for next month's trip to Nicosia.
Giovanni Trapattoni will have been somewhat alarmed by the way his side defended against the Australians, however, and the 19,428 who came along to witness a rare appearance by the Republic’s soccer stars outside Dublin sounded distinctly underwhelmed at the end.
The scoreline, to be fair, did slightly flatter the visitors but it would be hard to argue that they didn’t deserve their win. The Irish delivered some decent passages of play and created a handful and scoring chances but Tim Cahill put away his two before the break clinically while the third, in injury-time at the end of the game, was a wonderful strike.
There were consolations for Trapattoni in terms of some of the individual performances but in the two key areas where places are up for grabs he wasn’t given a huge amount to cheer about. As expected, he had opted to start Darron Gibson rather than Keith Andrews and if he was looking for the young Manchester United midfielder to stake his claim for a place in Nicosia next month, the Italian must have been disappointed.
In what was an open game, the 21-year-old had the chance to shine but it really wasn’t to be his night with an early free crashing back off the Australian wall, while one conceded at the other end handed the visitors the chance to have a crack at goal from medium range. Then, worst of all, some poor decision making left Robbie Keane furious as the midfielder broke forward well only to hold on to the ball too long before, finally, over-hitting a pass for Kevin Doyle to his right with the team captain at the far post in acres of space.
Whether Andrews would have done much better is something of a moot point and given all of the manager’s talk on Tuesday about building the confidence of his younger players, it’s to his credit that he did not revert to the Blackburn Rovers man at the break but rather waited another 20 minutes or so. Still, it remains a concern that here again, central midfield was clearly a problem area.
The result, inevitably enough, was a busy night for the central defence although sadly they didn’t cope quite as well here as they had in Sofia in June. Richard Dunne, to be fair, had his moments, whether it was standing tall under pressure to head away a Harry Kewell cross, taking the ball off Cahill’s knee as the Everton midfielder sought to shoot for an angle or simply crashing into Kewell as he did at one point, leaving the former Liverpool winger to complain as the Irish took off towards the other end of the pitch.
Seán St Ledger looked cool and confident beside him again through the opening half hour or so but neither managed any heroics during the build-up to either of Cahill’s goals. Scott McDonald had the Preston defender twisting and turning before he played a return ball for Cahill, in plenty of space on the edge of the box, to open the scoring 38 minutes in with a low drive to the bottom-left corner.
And the Irish defence was guilty of standing off when Rhys Williams pushed into the area seven minutes later and let loose from 15 yards or so. Given managed to parry the shot but Cahill was on hand to fire the loose ball home.
They were terribly soft goals to concede after a spell in which the Irish had done quite well. There was little by way of sustained pressure from either side in a match that moved fairly swiftly from one end to the other but the locals probably enjoyed their best spell of the night during the 20 minutes prior to Australia taking the lead.
Doyle never quite looked 100 per cent but that was no surprise. Alongside him, though, Keane looked lively and inventive while out on the wings Damien Duff and, particularly, Aiden McGeady looked constant threats.
Arguably, the Celtic player’s most significant contribution of the night was a fine challenge on Williams on the edge of the Irish area for Trapattoni has been looking for him to chip in a good deal more on the defensive side of things. Going forward, though, he showed both a willingness and the ability to go past opponents and cross the ball or come inside and switch the direction of play.
A low diagonal crossfield ball for Duff, for instance, set the Dubliner skipping off towards goal although when the shot came David Carney stood up to get in the block. There was a fine through ball for Keane too with the Irish skipper then shuffling his way past Patrick Kisnorbo rather flamboyantly before seeing his shot well smothered by Mark Schwarzer.
Ireland were to wait a long time for a better chance and by the time it came McGeady was gone, having enjoyed a brief spell of freedom, it seemed, to roam towards the centre as Stephen Hunt played on the right and Eddie Nolan, on for Kilbane, pushed forward down the left.
It was three minutes from time and Caleb Folan was now occupying the Doyle role but the lay-off for the chance came from Keane and Andrews sent the ball crashing off the post from distance.
The hosts continued to press for a consolation effort but instead got caught at the other end where, from a corner, Carney rather impressively picked his spot in the top left corner from some 25 yards.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Given (Manchester City); O'Shea (Manchester Utd), Dunne (Manchester City), St Ledger (Preston NE), Kilbane (Hull City); Duff (Newcastle Utd), Gibson (Manchester Utd), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Celtic); Doyle (Wolves), Keane (Tottenham). Subs: Folan (Hull City) for Doyle and Hunt (Hull City) for Duff (both half-time), Andrews (Blackburn) for Gibson (63 mins), Nolan (Preston) for Kilbane (63 mins), Westwood (Coventry City) for Given 68 mins), Long (Reading) for McGeady (81 mins),
AUSTRALIA:Schwarzer; Williams, North, Kisnorbo, Carney; Wilkshire, Jedinak; Bresciano, Cahill, Kewell; McDonald. Subs: Rukavytsya for McDonald), Holman for Cahill and Madaschi for Kisnorbo (all half-time), Spiranovic for North (71 mins), Carle for Bresciano (78 mins), Holland for Jedinak (89 mins).
Referee:Alfonso Perez Burrull (Spain).
