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On Tuesday evening at the Aviva Stadium, the Republic of Ireland overcame Kazakhstan in a less-than convincing manner on a score-line of 3-1.
Goals from Robbie Keane, John O’ Shea and an own goal from the Kazakhs was enough for the Green Army to see off the challenge of Miroslav Beranek’s charges in their final Group C World Cup qualifier.
However, despite winning by two clear goals, it was the home side who were forced to work hardest in the opening quarter of an hour as the Kazakhs took the lead through a superbly struck long-range beauty from Dimitriy Shomko.
David Forde, who had a terrific game against Germany last Friday in Cologne didn’t have much to do all night, although there wasn’t a whole lot the 33-year-old could have done to deny the 13th minute strike which sailed past him into the back of the net.
It was a veritable screamer from the Astana player.
From there, it looked as though interim Ireland manager Noel King would have a fight on his hands for the victory.
In fact, it took a blatant, ill-advised handball from Aleksandr Kislitsyn to haul the Irish back into the game as the referee was given no choice but to award a penalty kick. Up stepped Robbie Keane to tuck the ball away to level the scores.
Merely 10 minutes later, the hosts found themselves ahead through a rather unlikely source after John O’ Shea knocked home a rebounded Richard Dunne header. However, the Green Army failed to kick on from there, and they never really looked like taking the match by the scruff of the neck.
In truth, Kazakhstan never looked like finding a way back into the match as the game descended into quite a mediocre spectacle, although they never looked like relenting, and came close late on in the second half through the boot of Igor Yurin.
There were some good performances from Ireland on the night as Andy Reid, who’s been in the international wilderness for a number of years, put in a solid shift spearheading the attack, while Everton star James McCarthy carried out a good job linking defence with attack whenever possible.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t cohesive enough and fans of the Irish national team will have been disappointed with the manner in which they won the tie. In short, they’ll be hoping for better when the qualification for France 2016 eventually kicks into action.
The result brought to a close a very poor campaign for both sides. However, it was more so for the Irish who witnessed all their World Cup hopes disintegrate late on with two poor results against Austria and Sweden only recently.
With a number of experienced, highly-respected managers linked with the task of revitalising the international set up, it promises to be an intriguing few months in Irish football.
