ROBBIE BRADY WILL miss Ireland’s World Cup qualifier at home to Wales in March next year after picking up a booking in Vienna tonight.
The incident was the one sour note from an otherwise hugely satisfactory evening for Martin O’Neill and his side as they earned a famous 1-0 win — by all accounts, their most notable away success since the 1987 defeat of Scotland.
The manner of the yellow card will prove hugely frustrating to O’Neill, as Brady needlessly kicked the ball away in an apparent attempt to waste time in the dying minutes of this evening’s match.
O’Neill also suggested afterwards when speaking to RTÉ that Brady didn’t know he was on a yellow going into the game and that another would mean suspension for the crucial Wales encounter.
“I don’t think Robbie was even aware beforehand,” O’Neill said.
“It’s alright pointing out things to players but the last thing you want to do (is discourage tackling).
A couple of minutes later, I think it was Wes who was fouled — that’s the strange thing about this game: (it was a) bad, bad foul and the Austrian player doesn’t pick up a yellow card.
“Robbie plays the ball back six or seven yards in an attempt to waste a second or two and gets booked.
Yes, we’ll have to look at that there again, but we have played the competition now without Robbie at one particular time. He’s as brave as a lion as you know and we played without Jeff in Moldova, we’ve played without players every single time (in big games), so hopefully someone (else) steps up to the mark.
O’Neill added that it was “nice” to beat Austria, but played down the significance of the result, emphasising that there were “a million miles to go” between now and the end of qualification.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
