Gunners’ quick-fire double decisive as Lilies rue bad luck
HISTORY has a habit of repeating itself and so it proved for Dundalk at the Emirates on Thursday night.
Despite the downside of Covid-19 restrictions and all that they entail, the trip to face Premier League opposition in what was the club’s 80th game in Europe will undoubtedly go down as one of the most glamorous.
It brought back memories of Dundalk’s first venture into Europe way back in 1963. On that occasion against FC Zurich, the Lilywhites were forced to wear red shirts for the game at Dalymount Park, with kitman Mickey Fox borrowing jerseys from Arsenal.
The Arsenal on that occasion was the local junior club, but 57 years on here was Dundalk going head to head with the real deal.
Then, just like now, the scoreline finished 3-0, with the local side giving a good account of themselves overall, only to be punished by a sheer ruthlessness that you just don’t get at a domestic level.
For much of this game Dundalk did very little wrong, even if they were penned back into their own half for long spells by an Arsenal side which may not have been full strength but still contained five players who had joined the Gunners for a combined total of £162.45m. Then two goals in as many minutes before the break and another 32 seconds after it had everyone hoping the final scoreline wasn’t a landslide.
Thankfully that never emerged, but Dundalk need no reminding that mistakes at this level get punished. You need a bit of luck on your side too if you’re to slay Goliath and Filippo Giovagnoli’s side got little of that on Thursday.
For 42 minutes of this game the Italian’s plan was going well. While Arsenal had wave after wave of attacks, the first shot on target actually came from Dundalk, with Patrick McEleney’s shot from range having to be tipped around the post by Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson.
The one disappointment was that the resulting corner - and another that soon followed when a Chris Shields shot was blocked by Cedric Soares - were both into the debutant goalkeeper’s arms.
Most of the pressure was at the other end, but Dundalk - who had superb defensive displays from Brian Gartland and Andy Boyle, in particular - largely dealt with it.
Indeed, the only efforts on target prior to the goal were a Sead Kolašinac header that was touched over on 34 minutes and a Joe Willock shot three minutes later that Gary Rogers held with ease down to his right.
Perhaps the warning sign of what was to come arrived on 39 minutes when the visitors failed to properly clear a corner. Boyle’s header dropped to Pepe, whose shot hit Gartland before falling
kindly to Eddie Nketiah, only for the striker to screw his shot wide from about four yards out.
Sadly the resistance was broken all too easily on 42 minutes.
Rogers came to meet a Willock corner but missed the punch and the ball then deflected off Daniel Cleary, with Nketiah quickest to pounce to steer the ball to the net before Gartland could clear.
Then within two minutes it was 2-0. Cameron Dummigan was a surprise inclusion at left wing back but justified his performance with a solid defensive display.
He was hamstrung, however, by his lack of a natural left foot and this meant he was constantly having to check back on his right. So perhaps he lacked the confidence to go forward when he received the ball just inside the Arsenal half on the touchline. Instead he attempted to play the ball back to Cleary, only for his effort to be picked up on by Nketiah. The goalscorer then teed up Pepe for a shot that was blocked by Boyle, but the ball ricocheted kindly towards Willock who fired to the roof of the net.
On a different day maybe the ball would have rebounded elsewhere off Cleary for the first and Boyle for the second, but there was no luck on this occasion for Dundalk whose slim hopes of a fightback were ended just 32 seconds after the restart when the one real moment of quality in the
game saw Arsenal go 3-0 ahead.
Willock’s pass found Pepe at the edge of the box and the £72 million man gave Rogers no chance with a curling effort to the top right-hand corner.
Both sides were perhaps happy to see the game out as it was after that, with Dundalk having one eye on Sunday’s game with St Patrick’s Athletic and Arsenal gearing up for a trip to Old Trafford.
The Lilywhites had done themselves proud overall and gained even further plaudits after the game when it emerged they were the first side in the history of the Europa League to go through a full game without conceding a foul.
The real blow, however, was another stat. In just eight shots on target against them over two group stage games so far, Dundalk have now conceded five goals. That’s something that must improve if they’re to take anything from the four remaining games in Group B.
Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson; Cédric Soares, Shkodran Mustafi (Dani Ceballos 61), Sead Kolašinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Joe Willock, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka (Kieran Tierney 74); Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah (Folarin Balogun 74), Nicolas Pépé (Willian 61).
Gary Rogers; Brian Gartland, Andy Boyle, Daniel Cleary (Sean Hoare 53); John Mountney, Patrick McEleney (Jordan Flores 53), Chris Shields (Sean Gannon 62), Sean Murray (Greg Sloggett HT), Cameron Dummigan; Michael Duffy (Stefan Colovic 70), Patrick Hoban.