Rather than dwell on Sunday’s anticlimatic 2-1 defeat in Poland, the Republic of Ireland manager, Martin O’Neill, emphasised the positive aspects of a Euro 2016 campaign that will still finish on a high if his team emerge triumphant from a two-leg play-off in November.
On the back of a thrilling win over Germany in Dublin, Ireland went to Warsaw confident of gaining at least the high-scoring draw they needed to qualify for France but Poland prevailed and progressed to the finals instead. O’Neill says finishing third in a group that also included Scotland and the world champions Germany was a laudable feat and has convinced him that his team are good enough to come through next month.
“I said to the players in the dressing room that I would have taken this situation,” O’Neill said. “When we saw the group in the first place, I may well have taken it before we even kicked a ball in Georgia in the very first game. What I said has come to fruition: teams have taken points off each other. I heard Gordon Strachan saying that they’re out despite us and Poland not beating them, but we’ve taken four points off the world champions. Scotland didn’t do that. So we should put this into perspective. I’m disappointed by the Poland defeat but we’re still here, still fighting. We’re not out of this, not by a long shot.”
Ireland will find out the identity of their play-off opponents when the draw is made in Nyon on Sunday. The Irish are unlikely to be seeded for the draw and their most probable opponents include Sweden, Bosnia-Herzogovina and Croatia. “I’ll take on any of them,” O’Neill said.
The red card for John O’Shea in Warsaw, and the yellow for Jon Walters, deprives Ireland of two of their most trusted players for the first play-off game and O’Neill’s disappointment at their losses was evident in his post-match call for Uefa to reform the system so that suspensions picked up in the group phase are not carried over into play-offs. He said the system was particularly unfair in view of the fact that Group I had only five countries, meaning they played fewer matches than those in other groups and thus ran less risk of incurring costly bans. Denmark will be in the play-off after finishing third in that group.
The sense of injustice was all the more acute in the case of Walters, as the manager believes the Stoke City forward was booked because of Robert Lewandowski’s reaction to an innocent challenge. “That is a real blow,” O’Neill said of the ban of a player whose strength and dynamism have epitomised much of what Ireland have done well in the campaign. “Having seen the replay, I think he’s harshly done by. Lewandowski has played for the foul and carried on rolling.”
O’Neill has been accustomed to improvising throughout the campaign, even making alterations when not obliged to do so. It has been difficult to discern an overall team identity. In different matches – and often within the same match – performances have fluctuated between the disjointed and the fluently adventurous. There was the dreary route one approach when losing to Scotland last year, and then vibrant and coherent displays such as in the second half against Poland in March and in last week’s win over Germany. That victory looked like a coming of age for the team but the display in Poland was an uninspiring sequel. That was partly because Wes Hoolahan, the creative pivot against Germany, felt unable to start in Poland.
“Wes had a chat with me and he felt that not only was his heel causing him a problem, which he picked up while playing for Norwich, but also his side was pretty sore,” O’Neill said. “He felt that rather than starting a game and not lasting that long, he’d have been better to come on if needed for 20 or 25 minutes, and that was the case.”
The influence of Hoolahan, who was often overlooked by previous managers, has been an undoubted plus point in Ireland’s campaign and O’Neill also highlighted the rise of the Derby County midfielder Jeff Hendrick, who made decisive contributions at key points and generally looks at home in an international midfield. It was noticeable how Ireland improved on Sunday after Hendrick shifted from right midfield to the centre following Glenn Whelan’s departure in the second half.
O’Neill also praised Darren Randolph, who played well in Poland days after being thrust into his competitive debut against Germany following Shay Given’s knee injury. O’Neill said there may be a chance Given will be fit for the play-off but he would have no qualms about turning to the inexperienced Randolph again.
“We’ll find out from Stoke exactly [what Given’s injury is],” O’Neill said. “I don’t think it’s as bad as first feared. But Darren’s done really well for us. That was his first game when he came on against Germany and I thought he dealt with that situation really brilliantly. He gave us a nice command, which you wouldn’t expect from someone making his debut, and against Poland I thought he did really fine.”
