LOST IN SPACE
BELGIUM MEXICO PORTUGAL NIGERIA ROAD TO RUSSIA 2018
Crammed with English Premier League class, the fact Romelu Lukaku is already their record scorer aged 24 shows how much success the Red Devils are now enjoying. They even reached No.1 in FIFA’s world rankings from November 2015 to March last year. Mexico showed the danger they can pose with a six-goal draw in Belgium as well as a defeat of Poland during this month’s international break. They may have fewer big names now but Hector Herrera, Javier Hernandez and ex-Arsenal kid Carlos Vela are much loved in Central America. Their Euro 2016 win came as a shock to many although any side with Cristiano Ronaldo in it cannot be written off. Portugal, who have been to the last four World Cups, may have enjoyed a straightforward qualifying group but they still came through it with just a single defeat. The Super Eagles were the first African side to reach Russia and have only missed one World Cup since first qualifying in 1994. Their giantkilling ability was on show this week as they came from two goals down to beat Argentina 4-2.
POLAND Few would class Poland as the sixth best side in the world – even if FIFA rankings say so. However, in Robert Lewandowski they have a man who scored the most goals in all the qualifying groups worldwide. They breezed through Group E and will want to show the world what they have after missing out in 2010 and again in 2014. DENMARK manager Age Hareide rented Martin O’Neill’s flat when the pair played together at Norwich.
But he can scarcely have felt more accommodated by the Irishman back then than he did on Tuesday night.
“Thank you very much for giving us space,” trumpeted Hareide after his side’s 5-1 humiliation of Ireland in the World Cup play-offs.
Ireland were exasperating to play against in the first leg in Copenhagen, battling their way to a scoreless draw in which they defended deep and showed virtually no interest in attacking.
Christian Eriksen was given little space in a performance that Danish midfielder Thomas Delaney described as “a bit like opening a can of baked beans with your bare hands”.
At the Aviva, however, Ireland spilled the beans.
Having taken the lead through Shane Duffy, collective errors on a corner and a Danish counter-attack – seasoned with some brilliance by Eriksen – left Ireland chasing the game at half-time.
How they did so was unfathomable. Manager Martin O’Neill brought on Wes Hoolahan – Ireland’s most skilful playmaker, and generally seen as the panacea to all attacking ills – and ex-Celtic wideman Aiden McGeady. To facilitate them, O’Neill removed both of his defensive midfielders, Harry Arter and David Meyler.
What followed was Ireland had nobody in midfield to give the ball to the attackers on the pitch as Eriksen was given the Freedom of Dublin, meaning Denmark scored with ease while Ireland barely created a chance. The home side were utterly shapeless as Eriksen roamed indolently about, running the game.
Afterwards O’Neill said he couldn’t disagree with a journalist’s assertion that the double substitution had left Eriksen too much space.
It was a desperate gamble by a manager not seeing the second half as playing out rationally – instead assuming Eriksen and Denmark would not be able to pass the ball around an empty midfield in a frenzied Dublin atmosphere that would instead leave them clinging on for dear life.
This seems to be terribly intangible thinking from a manager but it has been at these moments of high emotion and