– Niall Kelly reports from the Stade de France, Saint-Denis
1. Wonderful Weso
IT WAS A day many Irish fans feared they would never see, but when the team-sheets arrived a little over an hour before kick-off, Wes Hoolahan’s name was deservedly among the starting XI.
Ignored by Giovanni Trapattoni, Hoolahan had to wait until the age of 34 for his chance to shine at a major tournament. Better late than never, he seized the opportunity and turned in a man of the match performance capped by the sweetest strike to give Ireland the lead.
It is indisputable that Ireland are a more dangerous side with Hoolahan on the pitch, a fact which Martin O’Neill clearly appreciates.
But none of O’Neill’s concerns about Hoolahan and his ability to manage multiple games in a short space of time are likely to change, and the little wizard came off late on with a little bit of tightness in his calves.
Of Ireland’s three games, this was the one that he was always most likely to start. Despite his influence this evening, there’s no guarantee that he will start against Belgium and Italy if O’Neill opts for a more compact, defensive strategy.
2. Diamond dilemma
Sensing an opportunity to take all three points and a decisive step towards the last 16, Martin O’Neill reverted to the diamond formation which has served Ireland so well in the past, not least in the win against Germany.
It allowed him to accommodate Hoolahan, Jon Walters and Shane Long within the same side without sacrificing any of the defensive solidity.
But it’s a system that asks an exceptional amount of the two middle men — in this instance, James McCarthy and Jeff Hendrick. Hendrick blossomed with one of his best performances to date but, although he lacked nothing in workrate, McCarthy simply didn’t offer Seamus Coleman the protection he needed on the right side.
It allowed Sweden’s own right-full Martin Olsson to bomb on more and more as they pressed in the second half and it was no surprise that their best chances — and equaliser — came down that side.
3. It only takes one moment
Even on a quiet night, it only takes one moment for a man of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s talent to change the course of a game.
There were whispers that Shane Duffy might be thrust into the lion’s den and asked to shackle Sweden’s superstar. In fact, it was Ciaran Clark who got the nod and barely put a foot wrong over the course of the evening.
Frustrated by a lack of quality service Ibrahimovic was forced to drop deep in search of the ball, roaming in Glenn Whelan’s sphere of influence, away from the areas in which he could cause any real trouble. His best chances were hurried pot-shots and none of them even found the target, let alone draw a save from Darren Randolph.
But when he found himself isolated on one-on-one with John O’Shea, he fashioned the equaliser, forcing Clark to turn the ball past Randolph before the incoming Sebastian Larsson could do so.
Never allowed to reach the stratospheric heights he so often promises, but devastatingly for Ireland, still influential when it mattered most.
4. Bordeaux beckons
Ireland leave Saint-Denis with their first point of the tournament on the board, but on a night when they dominated, there will always be lingering regrets about the two points dropped and what might have been.
From the moment the draw was made, this evening’s game was always targeted as Ireland’s best chance of a win. Now it looks like they will have to take the maximum against either Belgium or Italy to have any chance of progressing.
O’Neill is far too shrewd an operator to throw caution to the wind and try to force the issue against superior opposition.
But tonight’s performance should change the perspective of what is possible at this tournament. This team has already proved that they are a considerably different proposition to the Ireland of four years ago, and on that basis, a result against either Belgium or Italy is not unthinkable by any means.
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