Updated at 23.17
IT’S 15 YEARS today since Louis van Gaal’s Holland came to Lansdowne Road badly needing a victory to keep their hopes of World Cup qualification alive.
The match will go down in history as one of Ireland’s best-ever results, as Jason McAteer’s stunning strike secured an unlikely win for Mick McCarthy’s men and gave their hopes of qualifying for Japan and Korea a substantial boost.
Roy Keane was at the heart of the victory — producing perhaps his greatest performance in an Irish jersey — delivering a typically all-action display and infamously clattering into an unsuspecting Marc Overmars early on.
The result was a major surprise, with Holland having reached the semi-finals of Euro 2000 just over a year previously, and the Boys in Green succeeding despite being reduced to 10 men following Gary Kelly’s 58th-minute second-half dismissal.
Yet where there was ecstasy for Ireland, there was despair for Holland, as it resulted in a rare instance of the Dutch team missing out entirely on World Cup qualification.
It also arguably represented Van Gaal’s worst day in management, with his side at one point playing with four strikers in a desperate and ultimately fruitless bid to find a last-gasp equaliser.
The line-ups for the game were as follows:
IRELAND: Given, Gary Kelly, Dunne, Staunton, Harte, McAteer, Holland, Kilbane, Roy Keane, Robbie Keane, Duff. Subs: Niall Quinn, Finnan, Carsley, O’Brien, Kiely, Morrison.
HOLLAND: Van der Sar, Melchiot, Stam, Hofland, Numan, Cocu, Van Bommel, Zenden, Overmars, Kluivert, van Nistelrooy. Subs: Bosvelt, Landzaat, Makaay, Hasselbaink, van Hooijdonk, van Bronckhorst, Westerveld.
A version of this post was originally published on May 19, 2014.
