Malachy Clerkin: Ireland chase shadows on dispiriting night in Athens

Ireland have had bad nights over the past three years but in some ways this felt the most dispiriting of them all. Stephen Kenny’s side spent the evening in Athens chasing shadows against a Greece side that was better-drilled, slicker in possession and deadlier in front of goal. It was about as comfortable a 2-1 home win for Gus Poyet’s team as they could have imagined possible.

For Ireland, another campaign has opened with zero points from two games. It’s one thing getting blindsided and coughing up careless defeats to Luxembourg and Armenia. It’s quite another getting outclassed in a game against your closest group rivals that has been circled in the calendar since the draw was made.

There was a lacerating simplicity about the terms and conditions here. Both sides came in knowing that a win or draw opened up the group’s possibilities, a defeat narrowed them down to the head of a pin. Any progress for one of these teams can only happen at the expense of the other. No point having notions about putting it up to France and the Netherlands without getting out of this clinch first.

All of which fed into a breakneck, aggressive start by both sides. Ireland had a corner inside the opening minute. Which would have been good and promising if it wasn’t for the fact that Greece completely took over the game and forced seven of their own inside the next 10.

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Ireland were Dorothy in the tornado. Gavin Bazunu had to fling himself to make two saves before a significant portion of the Irish support had even made it through the turnstiles. The first one, from a Giorgos Masouras snapshot following one of the corners, was a stunning effort, clawing it clear from just under the crossbar to just about keep Ireland’s sheet clean.

But Greece had all the early pressure and eventually it told. Callum O’Dowda tried to close down a cross from the Greek right hand side but his hand was too high and a long VAR check found the ball had struck it. Anastasios Bakasetas wellied the penalty down the middle of the goal and Greece were one up after 14 minutes.

It was hard to argue with the scoreline. Save for that initial thrust to force a corner after 12 seconds, Ireland had been virtual bystanders throughout the opening quarter-hour. Greece weren’t doing anything overly intricate beyond keeping their width and forcing a succession of corners. But Ireland had no answer other than to chase shadows and keep conceding corners. That it eventually told was more than fair.

In an odd kind of way, the goal at least relieved some of the pressure. The lead meant Greece lowered their tempo just a touch and Ireland started to keep the ball a little better. From one neat exchange around the middle, Nathan Collins and Will Smallbone combined to put Matt Doherty in behind the cover. Doherty’s cross was almost turned into his own net by Konstantinos Mavropanos on 26 minutes.

As it turned out, a goal denied was only a goal delayed. Smallbone speared in the resultant corner to the front post where Evan Ferguson got his head to it. He was presumably going for the bottom corner but Collins came steaming in on the back post to finish the job. As with the Greek penalty, it needed a VAR check to confirm the goal – Collins was originally flagged for offside – but stand it did and the sides were level again.

It was the one Irish bright spot in a torrid first half. Greece were slicker and more structurally sound, always having access to an out-ball on the left where Liverpool’s Konstantinos Tsimikas was invariably in space any time they needed. Matt Doherty was being hemmed wide by Dimitrios Pelkas and it meant Smallbone had to cover enormous acreage on his own. For the rest of the half, it seemed like every Greece attack began with Tsimikas and Ireland could do nothing about it.

Although Kenny sent Mikey Johnston on for Adam Idah at half-time, it only took Greece four minutes to go ahead again. Bakasetas got on the ball on the right and didn’t have to do much to thread it through Johnson and O’Dowda to find Masouras. His finish was curled smartly into the far corner but it was shoddy stuff from the Ireland defence. Yet again, Ireland conceded within five minutes of the restart. You are what you repeatedly do.

Ireland kept at it, as you’d expect. But it was a lot of huffing and puffing, constipated possession and hustling on to second balls. Ireland’s best chance of an equaliser came on 72 minutes, a beautifully crisp Collins strike from the edge of the box as Greece struggled to clear. But it went directly at Odysseas Vlachodimos in the Greek goal and he palmed it away.