Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A JOB WELL DONE
It’s not pretty but once again O’Neill’s Ireland are alive and kicking..
‘IRISH World Cup Hopes Must Be Buried’ screamed the front page of one Danish newspaper, alongside a picture of a coffin.
And had the hosts been more clinical in the first-half at Telia Parken, Martin O’Neill’s team would have been six-foot under. Instead, Ireland did what they do best.
They broke the Danes spirit by refusing to cave and, inch by inch, minute-by-minute dragged them through the manhole and into the sewer.
Because it is there that this team does its best work and in a seesaw closing spell they were pushing for the winner in those dying stages.
This was never going to be one for the purists and that’s how it played out. Still, as resilient as Ireland were, the contribution of Darren Randolph cannot be overlooked.
He made three stunning saves – including one at the death – to keep the tie alive.
Following a predictable script,
Denmark duly bossed the opening half and wasted no time testing Ireland’s defensive resolve.
And but for a combination of Randolph and wayward shooting, it would have been curtains.
Fullback Jens Stryger Larsen ghosted into the Irish box, collecting yet another one of Simon Kjaer’s booming diagonals.
He controlled it neatly and drilled a first-time shot at Randolph who parried it to safety before blocking Andreas Cornelius’ follow-up.
And soon after, the Middlesbrough keeper got his body behind a fierce Christian Eriksen drive.
That is how it played out until Ireland’s mini revival before the break.
Just as they had done in Cardiff last month, O’Neill’s charges – with Callum O’Dowda the surprise starter out right – saw little of the ball. But there’s nothing new there.
Stand-in captain Ciaran Clark and Co did enough to frustrate the hosts by the break but Pione Sisto was kicking himself after squandering a glorious chance.
Clark didn’t cover himself in glory when gift-wrapping Eriksen a ball in space and the Tottenham ace reeled off another shot from distance.
This time Randolph could only parry it and Sisto – leading the assists charts in La Liga this season – flashed the ball a yard wide.
Ireland were riding their luck but, again, what’s new there.
In attack, they were limited and Robbie Brady’s set-piece delivery was generally disappointing and Daryl Murphy cut an isolated figure.
As ever, James McClean was a human dynamo in trying to generate something positive and nothing is ever a lost cause in his eyes.
And Cyrus Christie adopted that same approach, slipping into the box after a mazy run from right-back just before the break, only for Kasper Schmeichel to swat the ball away and Jeff Hendrick couldn’t make use of the rebound.
Yet again, Ireland stunk the place out. And yet again, it was all going to plan. And sure enough, it was more of the same in the second-half.
Clark almost rounded off a hotchpotch move, but couldn’t flick the ball home from 10 yards.
Nicklas Bendtner’s arrival in the final quarter raised the roof. Danish fans havea love-hate relationship with the former Arsenal striker who finished this season as the top scorer in the Norwegian league.
By the same token, Long’s arrival for Murphy gave the home defence more cause for concern and, as they tend to do, Ireland finished strongly.
Suddenly they were playing decent football, piling forward. O’Neill and Roy Keane were energised on the touchline, kicking and heading every ball.
But the goal wouldn’t come. In the away end, Irish fans sang about going to Moscow but it’s still anyone’s.