THIS WAS YET another humdrum night at the Aviva Stadium, and another piece of evidence to show that supporting Ireland is something that’s now done out of some kind of generous impulse rather than excited expectation.
Xherdan Shaqiri settled the game with his free-kick midway through the first-half, from where the Euros-bound visitors were happy to sit back and invite Ireland to take the result away from them. With the honourable exception of Adam Idah, Ireland lacked the rhythm, cohesion and basic quality to cause the Swiss any problems.
The game, while utterly forgettable, was at least a means of interrupting the rumour mill. Speculation has been growing that John O’Shea will end up getting the job permanently – senior FAI sources insisted last night that wasn’t the case and it’s all systems go for the original plan – while the ground was also scored to whispers about the future of CEO Jonathan Hill. The FAI board have a scheduled meeting tomorrow, with Hill’s position reportedly on the agenda.
Hill was present tonight, and was pictured with former Chelsea manager Roberto di Matteo. Lest we reach a kind of saturation point of speculation, the FAI moved quickly to make it clear Di Matteo’s presence was a coincidence, and he isn’t in the running for the job O’Shea is keeping warm.
O’Shea himself says his interim status hasn’t changed, but his team selection was that of a man who wanted to put himself in the best possible position if the picture does change. He made only three changes, with one of them enforced: Chiedozie Ogbene was injured in training yesterday, and replaced by Mikey Johnston. Jason Knight replaced Will Smallbone in midfield, while Gavin Bazunu was re-introduced to the ‘keeper’s jersey.
O’Shea stuck with the same system, but alas, he went on to see a couple of old failings. The game had been pretty even to the point that Zeki Amdouni went to ground on the edge of the box under minimal from his Burnley team-mate, Dara O’Shea. Xherdan Shaqiri stood up and curled the free-kick into Bazunu’s right-hand corner, meaning Ireland had conceded yet another goal from outside the box. Ireland’s organisation was shambolic: Shaqiri curled the ball through space created by Swiss players peeling away from their decoy wall, in which Ireland did not put one of their own players. Given it was the side of the goal Bazunu had set up to cover himself, he might have done better, too.
Bazunu looked generally shaky, and he was blessed not to concede from even further out later in the half when he shanked a clearance directly to Granit Xhaka, who pinged the ball back goalwards from 30-odd yards. Bazunu missed the shot and was relieved to see it bounce back off the foot of the post.
Attacking-wise, Ireland toiled. There seemed to be a concerted effort to get their wing-backs higher up the pitch, but Seamus Coleman – outstanding on Saturday – struggled with his demand to effectively spearhead the Irish attack from the right flank, twice caught offside. He looked more comfortable when swapped to right centre-back just before the hour mark.
Ireland were otherwise reliant on set-pieces and opposition errors. Andrew Omobamidele twice got his head on set-piece deliveries, neither of which truly troubled goalkeeper Yvon Mvogo. Evan Ferguson – again feeding off scraps from his own team-mates – pounced on a poor back-pass and elected to pull the back to Josh Cullen, who curled the ball into the side-netting.
The Swiss betrayed their intentions for the second-half by withdrawing captain Grant Xhaka at the break, but Ireland took the greater share of possession without truly taking the initiative. They looked a side desperately lacking rhythm and cohesion, with attacks foundering in a series of misplaced passes and misread intentions. O’Shea made a triple substitution before the hour mark but elected not to change the system, and so Adam Idah was brought on to play in one of the number 10 positions off Ferguson. He mercifully brought some spark to the dowdy flint we saw to that point.
With Switzerland happy to drop off and defend their lead, Ireland looked completely devoid of ideas as to how to break them down, with the stadium groaning every time Ireland turned backwards. Idah, however, brought some running power in behind the Swiss defence.
O’Shea was suitably impressed, and then swapped Idah with Ferguson, allowing Idah to led the line and Ferguson drop a bit deeper. While Ireland hogged possession it was all painfully slow; the persistence with a back three an instance of pretty needless caution given Ireland trailed against a side happy with their one-goal lead.
Idah remained Ireland’s best hope of a goal, as he was the only player on the pitch capable of quickening the game’s trundling pace. He injected some energy into the ground with 10 minutes remaining when he robbed a Swiss player in midfield, drove forward and slammed a long-range shot just over the crossbar.
Finn Azaz was introduced for his debut with four minutes to go and almost made a stunningly immediate impact, weaving his way into the box but took too long to get his shot away. Ireland put some pressure on from the resulting corner, responding to the crowd’s urging….and then frittered away this rally of energy when Coleman shanked a cross-field pass for Ferguson out of play. At least it was an opportunity for the crowd to warm themselves from each other’s exasperated sighs.
Supporters filed out through the turnstiles a few minutes later, forgetting the game as they left. The next Ireland manager won’t find it as easy to forget the problems that have dogged this team for more than a year now.
Republic of Ireland: Gavin Bazunu; Andrew Omobamidele (Matt Doherty. 56′), Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea; Seamus Coleman; Josh Cullen (Finn Azaz, 86′), Jason Knight (Will Smallbone, 56′); Robbie Brady (Callum O’Dowda, 78′); Sammie Szmodics (Mark Sykes, 78′), Mikey Johnston (Adam Idah, 56′); Evan Ferguson
Switzerland: Yvon Mvogo; Nico Elvedi, Eray Cömert, Fabian Schar (Becir Omeragic, 75′); Silvan Widmer (Kevin Mbabu, 64′); Granit Xhaka (captain) (Remo Freuler, HT), Michel Aebischer, Vincent Sierro (Denis Zakaria, 64′); Dan Ndoye (Derek Kutesa, 64′); Zeki Amdouni, Xherdan Shaqiri (Noah Okafor, 75′)
Referee: Pawel Raczkowsi (Poland)
Attendance: 35, 742
Written by Gavin Cooney and posted on the42.ie
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