IRISH ARE SO PRIMITIVE SAYS DANE
IRELAND’S style of play has been branded primitive by one of Denmark’s top stars.
And that brutal assessment is likely to enrage managerial team Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane (below) ahead of tomorrow’s must-win clash with Wales.
The Republic held the Danes to an ugly 0-0 draw in Saturday’s Nations League clash in Dublin.
Ireland had just one shot on target in the whole game and fans whistled and jeered in the second half.
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Thomas Delaney is not a fan of Ireland’s approach.
After last year’s World Cup play-off first leg in Copenhagen, the Dane claimed playing the Irish was like “trying to open a tin of beans with your hands.”
But they took the tin-opener to Dublin for the return game and crushed Ireland’s World Cup dreams.
In the wake of Saturday’s bore draw, Delaney joked that Denmark had lost the tin-opener this time around.
“Ireland’s play is primitive but you can survive being primitive and they make it very difficult for you,” he said. “The reason we love football is that the best team doesn’t always win.
“I won’t say that we’re a way better team. We play to our strengths but, when Ireland hit the level they did on
Saturday and close us down, it’s difficult.”
Delaney was central to the fifthminute Jeff Hendrick chance that could have become an ugly flashpoint in the match.
Denmark stopped playing when Harry Arter went down injured but Hendrick dispossessed Delaney, only to steer his shot wide of Kasper Schmeichel (top).
O’Neill admitted afterwards that he would have let Denmark go down the other end to score uncontested had the Burnley man put it away.
Delaney said: “Arter was lying down and players were shouting ‘kick the ball out.’ I turn to play it out and suddenly there’s an Irish guy running towards me.
“I didn’t realise what happened. But you have to play until the referee whistles. The reason we got a little bit mad was everybody heard it, even our goalkeeper. Hendrick says he didn’t hear it. He just played the game, it’s a good lesson to learn.”