They may have traded their longships for charter flights from Copenhagen but the red-and-white bedecked army marching towards arrivals at Dublin airport on Tuesday morning suggested the Viking spirit lives on.
Across town, those Danish fans later celebrated unrestrainedly as Age Hareide’s team ended Ireland’s World Cup dream. Substituting their ancestors’ blood-curdling violence with footballing intelligence, Denmark offered the sort of strategy and subtlety Martin O’Neill’s players simply could not muster. Along the way Christian Eriksen offered a masterclass in elusive movement and precise delivery, registering a gorgeous hat-trick in the process.
The inevitably grisly post mortem is bound to involve a painful dissection of the tactics – or alarming lack of them – deployed by O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane. Yet awful as Ireland were, perhaps this side should earn a smidgen praise for the sheer bloody-mindedness which carried them this far.
Considering a binary squad lacking even a poor man’s Eriksen on their team sheet are very much about defying all available odds, O’Neill could not have named a more emblematic captain.
Seven years on from rupturing every ligament in his right knee and being warned by surgeons that he might struggle to walk normally again, Hull City’s David Meyler strode towards the centre circle, his armband illuminated by the floodlights.
There was a time, during their days at Sunderland, when O’Neill felt Meyler’s sometimes reckless youthful tackling left him overly open to injury but the midfielder has since earned his loyalty.
A similar collective trust binds this Ireland team but ultimately the resultant togetherness, the willingness to jump through metaphorical hoops of flame proved woefully insufficient. Stopping opponents – as they demonstrated in holding Denmark to a 0-0 draw in Copenhagen on Saturday – may be their forte but here they needed goals.
Considering Ireland had only managed four in five home qualifiers, Shane Duffy’s early looping headed goal provoked a sense of ecstasy fairly swiftly undermined by nagging pessimism.
With Danish pride piqued it did not take long for fears of false dawns to be justified but as Daryl Murphy’s subsequent volley swerved fractionally off target Hareide looked pensive. Was O’Neill’s former lodger – they shared a flat during their Norwich playing days – being outsmarted by his old friend? After all Meyler had boasted that Ireland would win, claiming that “Denmark don’t have our character, heart and desire”.
It was the sort of high-risk comment that seemed as potentially self destructive as some of his old tackles, and sure enough Hareide seized the opportunity to imbue his charges with additional motivation.
Retorting, rather pointedly, that his players possess “brains” as well as heart, Denmark’s coach mused that the game is not just about “winning duels” but “skill”. Aware that an equaliser would whisk them to Russia, his side refused to panic. Inspired by Eriksen, they delighted in passing and moving their way out of trouble.
Before long, Cyrus Christie’s own-goal provided an admittedly scrappy leveller. It proved the cue for Eriksen to issue a reminder that form may be temporary but class is permanent by concluding a clever counterattack with an elegantly executed, subtly weighted, shot which went in off the underside of the bar. The Tottenham playmaker was thoroughly subdued in Copenhagen but under pressure to underline his talismanic international status, he delivered both vision and incision.
O’Neill responded by replacing Meyler with Wes Hoolahan. The manager’s critics thought he should have played Hoolahan from the start but the Norwich creator is no Eriksen and his introduction made minimal impact. In mitigation the newcomer could have done without quite so many high, punted, often impetuously snatched deliveries. O’Neill should not escape censure for his part in that particular policy.
As Ireland chased long balls and lost causes, Eriksen curved an exquisite shot beyond Darren Randolph from the edge of the area to score his side’s third before completing that treble in even more sublime fashion.
Meyler’s heart, Keane’s media addresses and the Irish fans’ craic will be missed in Russia but the world is going to enjoy watching Eriksen.
