GOING NOWHERE
O’Neill vows he’ll stay on as Ireland round off bad year with dismal draw
MARTIN O’NEILL may have bought a bit of time as Ireland scrapped their way to just a second Nations League point with a scoreless draw in Denmark.
But it was an uncomfortable night for the manager whose team was totally outplayed. Second best in their friendly stalemate against Northern Ireland on Thursday evening, Ireland were resilient in Aarhus but they needed the help of the woodwork on a night on which they failed to muster a single attempt on target.
They have now not scored in 397 minutes
of football, while their nine games in 2018 have yielded just a single victory. O’Neill however, insisted his enthusiasm for management has ‘never waned’. ‘Enthusiasm is everything as Alex Ferguson once told a group of us. I’ve had it in abundance through my career, and it has never waned,’ said the 66-year-old. O’Neill gave no indication that his position may be up for review from FAI chiefs after a scoreless draw in Aarhus meant Ireland completed their worst international year since 1982. The return of one win in nine games — one in 11 including the 2018 World Cup play-offs against Denmark — was way below the return expected from a manager paid €1.9m-a year. ‘If I wanted, we could have played friendly matches we could have won but I wanted games that were difficult,’ he explained. Worryingly, Ireland have won just four of their last 20 games and have failed to score in half of them. Last night, when Michael Obafemi became the first player born in the 21st century to play for Ireland, they never threatened to lay a glove on Denmark and rode their luck to survive. O’Neill felt the outcome ‘was only a start’ and pointed out that the pick of the Danish chances ‘came of our own doing’ as Ireland pluckily repelled the Danes. ‘Since the Welsh game [4-1], we have had to tighten up. Now, we have to improve at the other end in terms of creating chances and goals. After Obafemi became the 12th new cap of the year, O’Neill hailed a teenager who has ‘got talent’ and spoke of why he had to ‘blood’ young players coming up in the Euro 2020 qualifiers. The draw takes place in Dublin on Sunday week, where Ireland will be among the third seeds, and O’Neill fully expects to be sitting in the seat allocated for the Irish manager. Danish coach Age Hareide seemed less than impressed by the Irish tactical approach. Asked if he had ever played against a team that created him so little trouble, he replied, ‘No’. ‘They have to close their tactics. If they choose to play like this, it’s their choice. ‘It was hard to create chances when they had so many bodies between us and the goal.’