– Niall Kelly reports from Paris
THINGS USUALLY SEEM better after a good night’s sleep, don’t they?
Before we draw a line under Ireland and Sweden’s 1-1 draw at the Stade de France, let’s take one last look:
The Positives
The first 48 minutes: This Sweden team are no great shakes so let’s not overstate things, but Ireland’s performance for the first 48 minutes was as commanding as we have seen from them at this level in a long time.
Martin O’Neill’s positive team selection and tactics set the tone, and there was a real determination to take the game to Sweden. There was a adventurous glint to the attacks as players expressed themselves — see Robbie Brady’s neat footwork before drawing a save from Andreas Isaksson, or Jeff Hendrick’s one-two with Shane Long before he crashed his shot off the bar.
It spoke of a confidence that we haven’t always seen, and even though they didn’t have anything to show for it until Wes Hoolahan’s goal, there were plenty of positives.
Hoolahan and Hendrick: Every time Hoolahan pulls on a green jersey, his approval ratings go up and up, and yesterday’s performance was no different. Making his major tournament debut at the age of 34, he scored a goal, was named man of the match, and once again convinced us that the future of Irish football would be in safe hands if we could only make him 10 years younger.
Had it not been Hoolahan, that accolade would have most likely gone to Hendrick who came of age with an all-action performance, the ultimate one-finger salute to his studio critics.
Sweden shots on target: Zero — an impressive achievement when you have a man of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s sublime talent leading the charge. Between Ciaran Clark and Glenn Whelan, they shackled and frustrated him; unfortunately he only needed to slip their guard once.
Belief: Perhaps the greatest positive of all will be the belief that this performance instils in the team.
The nightmare of Poland 2012 cast a long shadow but this group, with its new management and new faces, have definitively left that behind them. This was not the team that crumbled at the feet of Croatia, Spain and Italy; it was the team that through organisation, workrate, and a flash of creativity took four points from Germany in qualification.
Before the game O’Neill spoke of the effort the players put in just to make it this far, and how they now need to make a mark and show that they’re not just here to make up the numbers. Yesterday they did that for large parts, even if they couldn’t quite finish the job.
Belgium: If the evidence of last night’s performance in Lyon is anything to go by, they are not quite the force that the sum of their parts suggests. Saturday’s game in Bordeaux remains a stiff test for Ireland but when you put both team’s opening performances side-by-side, it’s no longer quite as daunting a challenge as it first seemed.
The Negatives
Two points dropped: Dress it up whatever way you like but the fact remains that Ireland had a firm grasp on this game and let it slip. This was earmarked as the most winnable of their games but they fluffed their chance and will have to do it the hard way if they want a place in the last 16.
Pretty much everything from the 49th minute on: Within 60 seconds of scoring, Ireland were on the back foot as Clark scrambled a corner behind before a lurking Zlatan could get on the end of it. It was a sign of things to come because once they had taken the lead, Ireland conceded the initiative.
They simply weren’t able to retain possession in midfield in the face of Swedish pressure, and they dropped deeper and deeper, allowing the Swedes to press and probe until they found a weak spot. The equaliser had been on the cards long before it came, and Ireland only had themselves to blame.
Jon Walters: His fitness has been the biggest talking point around the Irish camp for the past fortnight and it looked to be a huge boost when came through two training sessions over the weekend and was passed fit to start.
But his Achilles was bothering him from the moment he stepped out onto the pitch and now it looks like he will definitely miss the Belgium game, with a prominent question mark over his head for the rest of the tournament.
(Non)-impact subs: James McClean’s introduction for Walters might have been an enforced one but the decision to take off Hoolahan with 12 minutes to play was a headscratcher. He was a feeling a bit of tightness in his calves late on so again, O’Neill probably had little option.
But this wasn’t really the time or the place for Robbie Keane — a point made at length by Richie Sadlier on RTÉ. Ditto Aiden McGeady, who came on for the tired James McCarthy.
“We tried to win the game with the substitutions,” O’Neill said afterwards, but if Walters is a real doubt for the rest of the tournament, the options Ireland have in his place are worryingly uninspiring.
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