Pre-match sledging has never been a great strength of Irish football. One recalls the time Steve Staunton seemed to try to raise the hackles of the Irish crowd by telling us that a ‘high-powered’ German delegation had seemed unimpressed on their inspection visit to Croke Park.
In the build-up to last night’s Greece game at the Aviva, Keith Andrews had hinted at Greek chicanery, with hints of Gus Poyet enlisting the help of Irish spies to aid the Greek effort, while Stephen Kenny had issued a flaccid broadside at Greece’s supposed playacting in Athens.
Poyet dealt briskly with the Irish trash talk. “Be men” was Poyet’s advice to Kenny, while Andrews was dismissed as “cheap”.
When the time came for action rather than words, his team put Ireland away with a minimum of fuss in their Euro 2024 qualifier. Seldom in his coaching career can Poyet have enjoyed the satisfaction of two such dominant home-and-away performances against a single opponent.
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As for Ireland, the night was arguably even worse than Athens. Athens had come as a surprise. There had been strong emotions – panic, shock, consternation – at least everyone had felt alive. Here in Dublin, fulfilling the contractual obligations of an already-doomed campaign, they played like a team that didn’t want to be there.
If the pre-match trash talk had been designed to hype up interest in the game, it was clear on arrival at the stadium that it hadn’t worked. As ever, Kenny had promised an ‘electric atmosphere’, but it seemed a large section of the Irish football public had thought of better things to do with their Friday night.
The singing section behind the south goal was full at least – with many fans displaying Palestine flags – but as the Irish players walked on to the field and looked to their right they would have seen an almost entirely empty premium section above the teeming Palestine section.
In Athens Ireland had been forced on to the ropes from the outset. This time they were the first to threaten, as Evan Ferguson moved languidly into space on the edge of the box and curled a left-footer on to the outside of the far post.
We didn’t realise it at the time, but that was as good as was going to get.
Greece’s breakthrough came on 20 minutes, when Konstantinos Tsimikas wriggled past Chiedozie Ogbene on the left and was afforded space and time by Matt Doherty and Alan Browne to sweep a beautiful left-footed cross which was met violently by the head of Giorgos Giakoumakis. A Greek thunderheader to compare with any of their classic strikes of Euro 2004.
As usual, Ireland were going to have to fight their way back into the game, and as usual their attempts to do so were undermined by basic errors. At one point they lined up to press a Greek goal kick and did it very well, with Browne reading the Greek pass out of defence and cutting it out in midfield. Jason Knight then immediately passed it straight back to the Greeks.
Another such moment came a few minutes later when Ogbene overlapped Doherty down the right. Doherty delayed until Ogbene had run offside, then overhit the pass out of play. You don’t build momentum out of moments like that.
Ferguson was being starved of possession and as Josh Cullen’s shot sailed harmlessly over the bar you wondered if Ireland might be better off forgetting about shooting at goal and instead imagining that Ferguson himself was the goal. Give it to Evan and see what happens? It seemed worth a try at least.
Meanwhile Greece were threatening on the counter, with Bazunu saving from Dimitris Pelkas after Giakoumakis had outwitted the ballwatching Doherty.
The killer blow arrived four minutes into first-half injury time. There seemed little danger when Ogbene lost the ball to Pelkas in the middle of the Greek half, but as the Ireland players appealed for a handball, the little central midfielder Petros Mantalas had looked up and spotted Giakoumakis bursting away down the left. He lofted the ball into the empty Irish half for his team-mate to chase.
Nathan Collins would have been in a position to cover the run if he had not tried to play Giakoumakis offside. And he might have got away with it too, if Giakoumakis hadn’t been in his own half at the time.
Greece’s break had been so fast that Giakoumakis had to delay the ball into the box as he waited for support, but Pelkas – the man who had won the original challenge against Ogbene – had in the meantime outpaced all the Irish players to arrive at the back post and return Giakoumakis’s low cross to Giorgos Masouras.
The Greece midfielder had an easy finish through the legs of Doherty, who had run all the way back without ever actually getting close to his man. The crowd angrily booed the team off at half-time – the first time they have done it in the Kenny era, and most likely the last.
The second half was a non-event, with fumbling Ireland attacks punctuated by sharp Greek counters that nearly brought a couple more goals. At the end they went to salute the handful of their fans in the corner; they are second in Group B, ahead of the Netherlands, and based on those sides’ performances against Ireland, the Greeks deserve it.
The crowd had been announced at 41,000 but in reality looked well short of that. By the final whistle most of those who did turn up were already gone, and there was hardly anyone left to boo.
