Lacklustre Dutch spoil Long night
IRELAND will probably get a far tougher preEuros workout when they face Belarus in Cork next week. For so bad were Holland that Martin O’Neill will be concerned that his side somehow managed to squander victory when former Newcastle striker Luuk De Jong headed home late on with the visitors’ first effort on target.
Shane Long’s predatory prod after half an hour will almost certainly ink his name on the team-sheet for Ireland’s Euro 2016 opener with Sweden in just over a fortnight.
O’Neill said: ‘We started off pretty brightly, then the Dutch had the ball for quite a considerable time. But then we score from our setpiece and started to dictate things for a while. We were worth our lead.
‘In the second half, the number of changes that were made by both sides took a little sting out of the game and it became a wee bit open, so it’s hardly surprising that a goal was scored near the end.’
But O’Neill might have been better served using the Aviva Stadium for a rigorous 11 v 11 among his own number. There are still a couple of places up for grabs in the squad, but O’Neill’s thinking will be no clearer after this, although fringe players such as David McGoldrick and Harry Arter — whose fate could hinge on the fitness of Everton’s James McCarthy — did themselves no harm.
The same cannot be said for Manchester United’s £25million Dutch outcast Memphis Depay. One pass missed its intended target by 5ft and skidded straight out of play, while he succeeded in tackling himself as he attempted a dribble just before the break.
Depay was booed before the game — presumably by United supporters — and he was finally hooked on the hour.
Ireland’s deserved lead arrived when John O’Shea strode on to Robbie Brady’s whipped corner and saw his header blocked on the line by a combination of Jasper Cillessen’s gloves and Vincent Janssen’s arm. It should have been a penalty but Long did not wait for that decision and tucked in from close range for his 17th international goal.
Ireland went close with a trio of headers in the second half, Long and Shane Duffy both planting over, while Cillessen held Jon Walters’ effort before substitute De Jong turned in from a cross.