Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Delaney: A can do attitude
IN Copenhagen, Thomas Delaney said playing against Ireland’s defence was like trying to open a can with your bare hands.
“Maybe we brought the can opener,” smiled Delaney last night, still in his red Denmark shirt almost an hour after the World Cup play-off second leg.
“It was easy for us. They had to go forward and we wanted to play in between and we did today, and that was probably the biggest difference.
“We were able to find space, especially Christian Eriksen and Pione Sisto – and we know that they are top players.”
Werder Bremen’s Delaney has Irish heritage – going back to the 18th century.
He had little sympathy, however, for the plight of Martin O’neill’s side, going so far to say that
Denmark revelled in playing at the Aviva Stadium compared to the s*** pitch at the Parken Stadium last Saturday.
“I think that in Copenhagen, Ireland was happy about 0-0, they didn’t want to go forward,” he remarked.
“To be honest, the pitch was not in our favour. Of course the Irish team probably though it was s*** as well.”
Delaney was surprised by Ireland’s tactics.
“Maybe a little bit because we were able to, me and William Kvist, play around the first pressure pretty easy,” he said.
“I don’t know how you say in English, but they moved so much over and that gave us room. We took very good care of that tactic.
“They didn’t need to score a goal because it could go to penalties, but no team wants to go to penalties. So they went forward. We were convinced we could score one or two goals.”