France 2
Republic of Ireland 0
NO SIDE IN world football paces themselves like France, and tonight Ireland were the latest side against whom they did no more than they needed.
They preyed on Ireland’s recurring faults: first they scored a long-range goal, and then again shortly after half-time.
It was Aurelien Tchouameni and Marcus Thuram who exploited Ireland’s bewildering traits, and so this became a familiar story, in which Ireland’s honest, sweaty toil yielded nothing. Their position in this group is weak: they must beat the Netherlands on Sunday to catapult themselves into a three-way squabble for second place behind the French, who are disappearing over the horizon with five wins from five games.
When Stephen Kenny took the Ireland job, that cascading sound you heard wasn’t the shattering of a glass ceiling, but a series of mirrors. He has endured a run of luck to make Job wince, and, stastically, he now seems to live in what Opta would call the Twilight Zone.
The rate at which Ireland concede from long-rang is enough to sink the School of Expected Goals alone, and it is the statistical freak the world is talking about: L’Equipe filled a page in today’s edition with a disquisition on Gavin Bazunu’s fallibilities from long-range.
In March it was Benjamin Pavard, and tonight it was Tchoumaeni, who struck the opening goal and what was the 11th goal Ireland have conceded from outside the box since the start of 2021. (For comparison: they’ve conceded 27 goals in that time overall.)
Whatever faults Bazunu may have, it was hard to nitpick them here. Perhaps he had hovered too close to his right-hand post, as the French midfielder arced a sumptuous shot just inside his left-hand post. Ireland may feel they could have closed it down more quickly, but then again, Enda Stevens and Chiedozie Ogbene had been attracted to Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe instead played Antoine Dupont, popping the ball back to Tchoumaeni and watching as the midfielder smoothly slung the ball into the net. Ireland were left with a sense of grievance, as the goal came from the second phase of a corner that would not have been awarded had the referee blown for what looked like a foul on Adam Idah.
The goal was utterly deflating, undoing Ireland’s dilligent work in the early stages. Their shape and approach was as it was in Dublin in March, with Alan Browne parachuted into right wing-back while Shane Duffy and Enda Stevens returned to international football for the first time in 15 months.
Ireland’s gameplan was to draw a French press and then target the right side for Ogbene, to limited success: if there was a complaint about Ireland’s work in possession, it is that Ogbene wasn’t bold enough in driving at Theo Hernandez in the final third, particularly after the French left-back got booked. This was a general issue: Ireland got few attacking opportunities, but too often they passed them up, preferring instead to turn back and build play more patiently, perhaps – and understandably – frightened by the French counter-attack.
Adam Idah, meanwhile, replaced Evan Ferguson and reprised his near-heroic hold-up play from the qualifier away to Portugal in 2021. Jason Knight notionally started to the left of the front three but in truth he played everywhere, his astonishing energy of particular benefit to Stevens, who was tormented by Ousmane Dembele.
Ireland ensured the French didn’t cut loose after the opening goal, with Bazunu dealing with an Mbappe pop form range. He made a hames of an Mbappe effort one-on-one, allowing the ball trickle under him and over the line, but was spared agony by the referee’s offside flag, with Marcus Thuram offside in the build-up.
Stevens’ misery ended at half-time, with James McClean introduced. Stevens hardly had time to make it back out to the bench to see Ireland concede their customary goal just after half-time. This time it was Marcus Thuram, brilliantly slamming the ball into the roof of the net amid a thicket of bodies after Egan blocked Mbappe’s shot. Of the last 11 goals Ireland have conceded in competitive games, six of them have come within the five minutes immediately after half-time.
Ireland responded by creating their best opening of the night, with Idah slid clear on goal midway into the French half. He galloped forward and then turned back, giving the ball to McClean, whose deep cross was met by Ogbene, who saw his header clawed away by Mike Maignan. Ogbene then sent a shot sudding just over the bar from the resulting corner.
France, however, were in their haughty kind of cruise control, with Bazunu doing well to fly to his right to save another Tchouameni shot from distance.
Dembele was unlucky not to score just before he was substituted, waltzing by McClean in the box and rattling the near post. Moments later a stunning block by Collins denied Griezmann the third goal from inside the six-yard box.
Will Keane, brought on to replace Idah, lasted all of 11 minutes before he got injured: he will be the sixth striker unavailable to Kenny if the problem rules him out of the Dutch game on Sunday.
Thuram should have scored another in stoppage time, nodding inexplicably wide at the back post. Duffy, meanwhile, impressive after his long hiatus, blocked a late Mbappe shot away to safety.
The game largely trundled to a climax, with the French happy to allow the clock run down without much stress. They allowed Ireland some air to breathe in the soporific endgame, for which they might be grateful when the Dutch come to town on Sunday.
France: Mike Maignan; Jules Kounde, Dayot Upamecano, Lucas Hernandez (William Saliba, 72′), Theo Hernandez; Aurelien Tchouameni, Antoine Griezmann, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembele (Kingsley Coman, 72;’), Olivier Giroud (Marcus Thuram, 25′), Kylian Mbappe (captain)
Republic of Ireland: Gavin Bazunu; Alan Browne; Nathan Collins, Shane Duffy, John Egan (captain); Enda Stevens (Ousmane Dembele, HT); Josh Cullen, Jayson Molumby (Dara O’Shea, 67′), Jason Knight; Chiedozie Ogbene (Festy Ebosele, 83′), Adam Idah (Will Keane, 67′, Aaron Connolly, 78′)
Referee: Urs Schnyder (SUI)
