Goal-shy Ireland are well able to strike in Denmark
QUALITY over quantity. That, more than ever, has proven to be the name of the game for the Republic of Ireland when it comes to scoring goals.
Never a country capable of bullying those lower down the food chain, they have also relied on pick-pocketing the big boys to make it a level playing field.
For the first time in nine qualifying campaigns, Robbie Keane is no longer around to carry the burden in the box and it shows when you glance at the bare stats along this latest journey to the World Cup — one which has a final, agonising play-off pit-stop in order to reach Russia.
Twelve goals in 10 games is a paltry return from the shiest strike force of a team which has reached this do-or-die stage. Ireland have scored less than all the other sides which finished alongside them in second spot.
In the case of Sweden, they found the net more than twice that of Martin O’Neill’s charges with 26 goals, Switzerland just below that on 23, Italy 21, while Saturday’s opponents Denmark reached 20 with eight of those coming from dangerman Christian Eriksen.
Northern Ireland, Greece and Slovakia (who finished as worst runners-up and missed out completely) all scored 17 goals in their 10 group games, while Croatia were the closest with 15.
It doesn’t make for pretty reading when the margins between success and failure are so small, and yet…
They are just the headline figures. Keane’s cartwheels may be a thing of the past but O’Neill has still managed to dig deep into that well of determination within his squad to summon clinical moments on their travels.
‘You don’t really think of it at the time but, when you think about it now, playing the away game first does help,’ Callum O’Dowda said yesterday. And he is right. Ireland arrive at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen tomorrow for their first training session before the first leg on Saturday, and they do so with a confidence that is borne not just from the most recent victory over Wales in Cardiff last month, but by doing something none of the others who find themselves in the play-offs have managed: scoring in every away game during qualification.
Indeed, of the nine group winners, only world champions Germany and the country they deposed, Spain, can boast the same 100 per cent strike rate.
Eight of Ireland’s 12 goals came away from home (the same number as England who finished as convincing winners eight points ahead of Slovakia) and they yielded a dozen points.
There may be none up for grabs over two legs with Denmark but with the prospect of an away goal proving decisive it will be a welcome mental boost for Ireland to possess.
‘You want to score as much as you can. That’s what wins games. I feel we’re a threat, obviously at set pieces. Set plays are an advantage for us, we are always strong in the air when we are attacking but if we do go one goal ahead it’s probably important for us not to sit back which is probably the criticism that I can take from Georgia,’ Harry Arter added, pointing out that the side failed to build on Shane Duffy’s early goal.
‘Then to sit back for 88 minutes is never going to work. It’s a twolegged game so if we go one goal up then we have to try and go for the second, I feel.
‘If we go one goal up and there’s 45 minutes to go then maybe you can sit back and hold on to it with the second game in Dublin. Going into that game with a 1-0 lead would be great but I like to feel that if we do go one goal up that we can keep the minds the same way that helped get the lead in the first place and try to go for a second.’
That is what makes these playoff scenarios so tricky. Denmark, to their credit, have also proven that they are more than capable of scoring away from home — 10 of their 20 goals came outside of Copenhagen — but they are also vulnerable in front of their own support.
Montenegro nicked a 1-0 win in the Danish capital while Romania managed a 1-1 draw. The 4-0 thumping of Poland was their standout performance of the group but it will be those frailties
‘You don’t really think of it at the time but playing the away game first does help’
which gives O’Neill most encouragement.
Two goals in Serbia, three in Moldova, and one apiece in Austria, Georgia and Wales
Ireland may be defensive and give up plenty of possession but even going back to the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign there was only one offnight in Scotland where O’Neill’s side failed to find a way through.
They did so against Germany and Poland, both having fallen behind, and while the latter fixture ended in a 2-1 defeat, such an outcome this weekend would be by no means the end of the world.
‘We’ll be going there to win. That’s what the staff always say. We need to give ourselves the best chance coming back. If we get a positive result there, who knows?’ O’Dowda continued.
Ensuring everything is still to play for in Dublin is vital. Ireland know what it is like to suffer the heartache in a World Cup play-off — they lost the first ever regular two-legged fixture against Belgium in 1997, as well as the infamous defeat to France in Paris in 2009, while a 2-1 victory over Iran gained qualification for South Korea and Japan in 2002.
European World Cup play-off matches have only twice been decided by away goals in the last 20 years — Turkey overcoming Switzerland for 2006 and Slovenia edging out Russia to make it in 2010 — yet the margin for error is nil.
For all their other flaws, Ireland have proven that they are capable of taking advantage.