DUFFY SAVES KENNY’S TYKES
Teething problems evident in sloppy Sofia draw
THE road to redemption for the Republic of Ireland under Stephen Kenny almost began with a nasty bump in Bulgaria last night.
There were plenty of easy-onthe-eye passes, and lots of possession, especially in the first half, but Ireland coughed up an appalling goal before the hour mark to very ordinary opponents, and it needed Shane Duffy’s injury-time equaliser to nick a point.
Duffy, who has a habit of scoring late goals for Ireland, made amends for his lapse of concentration for the Bulgarian goal. Indeed, when Conor Hourihane, Duffy and John Egan look at the replay, they’ll curse themselves at the way Bozhidar Kraev was permitted to run through and score.
In a Sofia sweatbox where the focus was on Kenny’s rookies, it was shocking to see three senior players at collective fault.
The goal came against the run of play and Ireland had bundles of time to extract something from a night which began with promise.
Just as they appeared to be running out of puff and inspiration, Robbie Brady’s industry won a corner and his pin-point delivery picked out Duffy, who scored with a downward header.
Two years ago, the Nations League began with a car crash in Cardiff, after which there were cries for Martin O’Neill to stand down. This new UEFA event has yet to yield a win for Ireland in five games and they struggled to prise a way through the Bulgaria white wall.
For all that they kept the ball to feet, they only threatened from wide areas, while the late leveller was a set-piece. Clearly, the Kenny creed will take time, which the FAI are prepared to give him but there will need to be an improvement against Finland in Dublin on Sunday. Certainly, Slovakia won’t be cowering with fear in Bratislava ahead of the Euro 2020 play-off on this evidence.
If Mick McCarthy, who commentated on Sky, was still Irish manager, there’d have been grumbles at the quality of fare, and the dearth of scoring opportunities against a team that Ireland swatted away 3-1 in a Dublin friendly a year ago.
In fairness, both sets of players looked leggy as they emerged from a delayed pre-season.
Ireland played the ball along the shiny turf at pace but it wasn’t in dangerous areas and the end product was uneventful. For this is a team short on goals. In the last 12 competitive games, dating back to Cardiff, the team has managed eight goals. It’s an issue which Kenny needs to address.
Kenny opted for kids as U21 stars Adam Idah (inset left) and Aaron Connolly started, alongside Callum O’Dowda, 25, on the right flank, while the oldest outfield player was Hourihane, at 29.
James McCarthy, who returned after a four-year break, can do more in terms of getting on the ball and initiating moves.
Séamus Coleman was dropped for the first time in eight years as Matt Doherty stayed in the team at right-back, while Duffy wore the captain’s armband.
O’Dowda, comfortable on either foot, was encouraged to run out defenders and much of what he did was promising, but the end product needed to be better and he was taken off after the break.
He almost scored just before half-time when Jeff Hendrick muscled an opponent off the ball and freed Enda Stevens on the left flank, where Ireland enjoyed some decent moments.
The pull-back from the defender was inviting but O’Dowda, arriving at pace, couldn’t adjust his feet and his right-foot effort squirted wide.
Connolly was a far busier bee and also came close to his first Irish goal before the break.
When he picked the pocket of Bulgarian defender Kristian Dimitrov on the left side of the box and bore down on goal in the 13th minute, it looked so promising.
While the angle was tight, his right-foot effort lacked enough whip to bend into the far corner.
He later turned like a mongoose and stabbed a close-range effort into the head of goalie Georgiev but was ruled off-side.
And in the second half, after Ireland gifted Bulgaria their goal, Connolly pinged a wicked ball across the face of the box.
Idah held the ball up decently enough but got little change from his markers, while nothing fell his way in the box and he was replaced by Shane Long as Ireland looked to go more direct.
As Irish football waited for evidence of Kenny’s evolution, this wasn’t an entirely comfortable night and the back four had one or two shaky moments with balls over the top.
Stevens was the closest defender to Bulgarian skipper Petar Zanev when he had a free header in the tenth minute. A yard either side of Darren Randolph and Ireland would have fallen behind.
Soon after, the left-back shipped a yellow card for placing his head on an opponent and had to be wary thereafter. He gifted a free
kick to Bulgaria early in the second half from which Anton Nedyalkov tested Randolph at his left-hand post. Soon after, Hourihane’s sloppy pass as Ireland were deep in the Bulgarian half allowed a counter-attack.
Todor Nedelev was unattended midway into the Irish half and had time to find Kraev, who drifted into acres of space between Duffy and Egan. Two neat touches later, Randolph was on his backside and the ball was in the net.
Ireland set about a rescue mission, but they left it late, yet again, as Duffy salvaged a point.
On this display, Kenny knows he has much to do. Bulgaria: Georgiev; Popev, Zanev, Dimitrov, Nedyalkov; Malinov, Kostadinov, Ivanov; Kraev, Delev (Karagaren 76), Nedelev (Tsvetkov 83). Scorer: Kraev 56. Republic of Ireland: Randolph; Doherty, Duffy, Egan, Stevens; Hourihane, McCarthy (Brady 70), Hendrick; Connolly, Idah (S Long 77), O’Dowda (Robinson 74). Scorer: Duffy 90+4 Referee: M Schuettengruber (Austria)