– Paul Dollery reports from Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
AFTER ENDURING A frustrating evening as his side were held to a 0-0 draw by Ireland in Copenhagen, Denmark manager Age Hareide was irked by a question from an Irish reporter in his post-match press conference.
With a typically defensive approach, Ireland managed to keep a clean sheet after a dour 90 minutes at the Parken Stadium. The tie is now delicately poised ahead of Tuesday night’s second leg at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
When it was put to Hareide afterwards that the game was a poor advertisement for international football, the Danish boss delivered an exasperated response.
“I don’t know what you expect from international football,” said Hareide. “What’s the problem? You can say what you want. I wouldn’t say that. No, I don’t think it was a poor game. We created chances.”
He added: “We had the ball, 65%. We played well enough to win. If we play like this in Dublin we’ll win. You can say what you want about football, that’s your choice. Fine, fine fine. I have my opinion, okay?”
Denmark dominated possession tonight, with Jens Stryger Larsen, Andreas Cornelius, Christian Eriksen and Yussuf Poulsen all forcing Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph to make good saves, while Pione Sisto also narrowly missed the target with a close-range rebound.
Nevertheless, this 2018 World Cup play-off hangs in the balance as it makes its way to Dublin in 72 hours.
Hareide said: “We knew that Ireland were going to be hard to break down. When you don’t take the chances, they survive. But as I said before, 0-0 at home is not a bad result.
“A goal away will be very vital for us because then Ireland have to score two and they don’t score two goals many times.”
