The last time the Republic of Ireland played in Dublin, they beat the world champions, but Shane Long said after his winning goal against Germany in October that the Irish would have to reach Euro 2016 for his strike to be truly significant. On Monday night that wish could come true.
Martin O’Neill’s men go into the home leg of their playoff against Bosnia-Herzegovina in a strong position thanks to Friday’s 1-1 draw in the away leg. Long would dearly love to help give that goal more meaning and O’Neill is equally keen to deploy the Southampton striker, despite the knee injury that has kept him out of action for the past month.
“All his messages for me the whole time have been ‘don’t exclude me at this minute’ and I wouldn’t do and I’ll wait until the last possible moment because he’s come up with some big things for us,” said O’Neill. Asked what the last possible moment means, O’Neill said: “I’d say about a minute and a half to kick off. You have to put a squad in at some stage, but I will genuinely see. Honestly I don’t really want to push it because he hasn’t played any football since the injury. At this stage, you can gamble with certain people and obviously we had to with Stephen Ward who has played no proper football for Burnley at all [but was selected against Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina]. We’ll look, we’ll see.”
Long’s unlikely return would be a major plus for Ireland and give O’Neill’s side a much more powerful attack than in the first leg, with Jonathan Walters, who missed the trip to Zenica due to suspension, available again. If Long does not make it, the manager may persist with Daryl Murphy, who has yet to score in 18 appearances for his country.
Another option would be Robbie Keane who, at 35, no longer has the mobility to trouble international defences regularly. His role for his country has necessarily waned but, according to O’Neill, the veteran is certainly not redundant yet. “It’s a possibility,” said O’Neill of the prospect of starting the Los Angeles Galaxy striker. “I wouldn’t rule anybody out at all, absolutely not. Robbie Keane is our leading goalscorer and there’s a reason why he is.” But he then added: “I can’t turn the clock back. A 27-year-old Robbie Keane would be in the side, home or away.”
Robbie Brady’s goal in Zenica means that, irrespective of how their forwards do, Ireland will win the tie if their defenders shut out Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their defence could be reinforced by the return of John O’Shea, another who missed the first leg through suspension. Until then the Sunderland defender was the only player to feature in every match of the campaign and it is probable that he will be restored to the centre of defence even though Ciaran Clark performed valiantly alongside Richard Keogh in the first leg.
O’Neill said he was pleased to have such options and pointed out that omitting Clark represent an unfortunate repetition of history. “He was absolutely outstanding,” he said. “I reminded him it was a wee bit like his debut which I gave him way back years ago [in 2009] for Aston Villa against Fulham and he performed outstandingly well then. So much so that I left him out for the next game.”
Although Ireland may not need to score to advance, O’Neill says it would be folly to set out for a goalless draw against opponents who have dangerous players, particularly the former Manchester City striker Eden Dzeko, who scored his eighth goal of the qualifying campaign within three minutes of Brady giving Ireland the lead in the first leg.
“The message for us in the dressing room is that we have got to try and win the game,” O’Neill said. “We will have that attitude, that’s been our attitude at home in every single game that we play, maybe with the exception of away to the world champions [Ireland drew 1-1 in Germany during the group stages].
“If you’d said to me that we were going to get a result out there, I’d probably have taken it before the game. But our attitude has been very, very positive at home and Bosnia are capable of scoring, and that would put it back into the melting pot.”
