Republic of Ireland 2
Belgium 2
YES THERE WAS a hundred years of history to honour but why get tangled up in all of that when the present is so much damn fun?
On the night the FAI marked their centenary, Ireland twice came from behind to draw with the world’s top-ranked side, mingling the spirit on which the last century has been built along with the verve and bravery in possession we’ve seen all too rarely.
Belgium didn’t bring their A-listers but nonethless had a team stacked with Premier League and European regulars, while Ireland remain a side hewn from England’s lower leagues: only four of the Irish starting team are currently at Premier League clubs.
Ireland started with vigour but Belgium took the lead with the game’s first attack.
Shane Duffy’s errant pass into midfield allowed Belgium find Michy Batshuayi on the left, seemingly of little immediate threat. That was certainly what Seamus Coleman and Matt Doherty thought, with the former too easily showing him inside and the latter slow to track back, allowing Batshuayi ping a delicious strike beyond Caoimhín Kelleher.
It was a moment of magic, and Belgium’s next trick was to make the ball disappear. They utterly hogged the ball for the 20 minutes that followed, to the point it felt that the ’100 years’ slogans around the stadium felt they were commemorating the last time Ireland touched the ball.
To their credit, Ireland didn’t sit off Belgium: they kept pressing and chasing, and while they rarely won the ball back, they pushed Belgium back and left them stroking the ball round in deep, unthreatening areas. Ireland weren’t unduly troubled but they were chastened and the crowd lulled…until everything changed thanks to one of the day’s unsung heroes, the often-maligned Television Match Director.
The big screen lingered on Belgian assistant manager Thierry Henry for longer than it typically would, allowing time for even the most inattentive of the Irish crowd to join in the ritual booing.
It lifted the crowd from their torpor, and Ireland soon grabbed the initiative on the pitch. Remaining loyal to their principles of pressing, Egan nabbed the ball from a short Belgian goal-kick and James McClean saw his shot – Ireland’s first shot – deflected for a corner.
Ireland were level a minute later. The corner was cleared but Ireland kept up their pressure, their ambition underlined by leaving Shane Duffy forward for a throw-in. Duffy then caused his usual chaos when Robinson clipped a cross his way, and the ball broke for Ogbene who cooly controlled the ball with his back to goal and then hooked the ball into the net over his shoulder.
Ireland finished the half much more strongly, with Belgium’s growing discomfort summed up by Arthur Theate’s hauling down of Ogbene as the forward scarpered onto a delightful, skidded Robinson pass.
Roberto Martinez had seen enough at half-time and quite literally said Foket: Thomas Foket was introduced for the more attack-minded Alexis Saelemaekers. It did nothing to change the flow of the game as Ireland voraciously picked up where they left off. Coleman pounced on another short goal-kick, stabbed the ball through for Knight, whose squared pass for Robinson was flicked back to McClean, who saw his shot hacked off the line by Denayer.
Moments later Jeff Hendrick sent a pass raking across the pitch and arcing behind the Belgian defence for Knight, who saw his shot to the near post deflected for a corner.
If seeing one member of the Belgian staff helped flip the momentum of the first-half, it was the input of another that swung it in the second. Anthony Barry was described as a “set-piece master” by Youri Tielemans yesterday and he brought into this game a working knowledge of how Ireland run theirs. Hence he helped to engineer a systems failure that saw Theate and Hans Vanaken queue up unmarked on the six-yard box to meet Hazard’s corner. Theate missed it but Vanaken caught it flush, and the ball bounced in off Coleman’s hip.
Barry’s insider trading notwithstanding, it was an appallingly simple goal for Ireland to concede.
To their credit, Kenny’s side weren’t cowed by their momentary clumsiness. The game drifted until Kenny played his hand, introducing Will Keane and Alan Browne for Knight and Hendrick. Five minutes from time, a long ball from Keane broke for Matt Doherty, who had Chiedozie Ogbene to thank for turning his bad pass into a good one.
Ogebene turned on the afterburners to keep the ball in play, and then picked out Browne who buried his header beyond Mignolet.
There was to be no late winner, but that mattered little to an ebullient crowd. Gone was the didacticism of last year, when Kenny’s contract was a live matter; tonight was more exuberant than defiant.
A Saturday evening well spent.
And as we say goodbye to the first century of Irish soccer….maybe 2-2 is the new 1-1.
Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Seamus Coleman (captain), Shane Duffy, John Egan; Matt Doherty; Josh Cullen, Jeff Hendrick (Alan Browne, 75′); James McClean (Ryan Manning, 80′); Chiedozie Ogbene, Jason Knight (Will Keane 75′); Callum Robinson (Troy Parrott, 90′)
Belgium: Simon Mignolet; Jason Denayer, Dedrick Boyata, Arthur Theate (Orel Mangala, 75′); Alexis Saelemaekers (Thomas Foket HT); Youri Tielemans (captain), Leander Dendoncker; Thorgan Hazard; Charles De Ketelaere (Adnan Januzaj, 75′), Hans Vanaken; Michy Batshuayi (Christian Benteke, 83′)
Referee: Nicolas Walsh (Scotland)
Attendance: 48,808