Roy Keane had called for a war but what he got was bloody awful until, that is, Jon Walters stormed to Ireland’s rescue five minutes from time.
The Irish had trailed since the 31st minute, when Martin Hinteregger struck for a depleted Austrian side who seemed on course to revive their World Cup qualification hopes by dealing a blow to those of their hosts, who were incoherent for much of this match. But then Ireland rallied, equalised and even forced the ball into the net a second time, only for the referee to disallow the goal for a supposed foul on the goalkeeper by Shane Duffy, much to the anger of Martin O’Neill.
With Serbia and Wales also in the running Group D looks likely to go down to the wire and Ireland can take confidence from this demonstration of their ability to fight to the finish. Whatever else they lack, their determination is bottomless. No one personifies it better than Walters. “Jon’s not the quickest but he’s got a real knowledge of the game and a really great will,” O’Neill said. “He is totally invaluable to us.”
Dublin looked a picture under a glowing sun but this match all but defaced it in the first half. With wayward passes, clunky touches and negligible imagination it was grisly viewing until Austria scored with a goal of incongruous quality. The visitors had offered a smidgin more neatness than the hosts in the opening half an hour but nothing that foreshadowed the artfulness of their breakthrough. It came from a corner delivered by David Alaba. Aleksandar Dragovic and Sebastian Prödl flummoxed the Irish defence by letting the ball run past them and over to Hinteregger near the penalty spot. He took one touch before firing past Darren Randolph.
There was no immediate trace of an Irish riposte. Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick can usually be relied on to serve up a measure of creativity but both were sloppy, Brady ineffective from the right wing and Hendrick offering meagre invention in an advanced central role. The game was crying out for Wes Hoolahan, the 35-year-old on the bench.
“I knew at half-time that we had left so many things behind and there was a determination in the second half to redress it,” said O’Neill, who made no personnel changes during the break but his team did emerge with more dynamism.
The fragments of class still came from Austria, though. The visitors forged a chance to increase their lead when Alaba drove through midfield before flipping the ball wide to the dangerous Florian Kainz and charging into the box. Kainz’s low cross was fractionally in front of Alaba, who had to stretch as he shot from 10 yards and that affected his accuracy.
O’Neill rejigged his team in the 55th minute, introducing Daryl Murphy up front alongside Walters and reassigning Brady to left-back in place of the substituted Stephen Ward. Ireland improved. They cranked up the intensity and delivered more and better balls into the box. For the first time Austria looked vulnerable.
McClean rattled them further when he cut inside from the right and shot a couple of yards wide from the edge of the area.
O’Neill cast on Hoolahan in the 71st minute and the little schemer almost created an equaliser within moments, delivering a wicked inswinging cross from the left that triggered such panic that Stefan Lainer almost slashed it into his own goal. The goalkeeper, Heinz Lindner, came to his rescue.
Austria rode that storm and would have increased their lead if not for a fine save by Randolph. Just as the visitors sensed a victory, Walters struck. It was classic Walters, the striker marauding on to a punt by Randolph, outmuscling Dragovic and walloping the bouncing ball into the bottom corner from 18 yards. The crowd went wild and two minutes later they thought things had got even better when Duffy headed into the net from close range after a massive scramble in the Austrian goalmouth. But the Spanish referee, David Fernández Borbalán, reckoned there had been a shove on the goalkeeper.
“We had a legitimate goal disallowed,” O’Neill said. “The referee was not to blame for our performance in the first half but I thought he was very poor indeed. The Austrian centre-back Prödl said on the pitch that, if it had been the other way round he would have been very disappointed.” The draw, at least, suited Ireland more than Austria.
