Cagey Greeks give little away

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Lansdowne Road
26 April 2000)

By Peter Byrne

Report from

There was no silver lining on one of the more challenging days of Mick McCarthy's managerial career as he watched his improvised team sink slowly and perhaps inevitably, in front of a crowd of 24,000 at Lansdowne Road last evening. With five new caps, including substitutes Alan Mahon and Gary Doherty, to stoke the interest of the curious, the wonder is that the Irish managed to stay competitive for so long.

This was to some degree attributable to the fact that the Greeks, who were a goal to the good after just 15 minutes of their first appearance in Dublin, were generally content to hold what they had.

It meant that for much of the 90 minutes the men in green were going forward - not always incisively, it has to be said, but with enough persistence to foster the hope that an equaliser might presage an unlikely winner.

This, as it transpired, was stretching optimism too far. Greece, unambitious to the point of tedium, emerged with a win.

The great misfortune for the Irish was to concede a goal in what was the visitors' first attack of any substance. Had the home team managed to protect Shay Given's net successfully until half-time it is just possible that the Greeks might have been persuaded to do something other than defend in depth.

But the goal sated the visiting team's ambition on the night and the elegance of the Seville midfielder Vassilios Tsartas, which might otherwise have found expression going forward, remained largely dormant until his replacement early in the second half.

Given was afforded the opportunity of re-acquainting himself with the pace of international football in one of two unexpected selections on McCarthy's teamsheet but did not handle the ball until he stooped to retrieve it from the back of his net. Tsartas, in a moment of impressive vision, had picked out newcomer Vassilos Lakis with the 40-yard diagonal pass and the winger came inside Steve Staunton's tackle before curling the shot in from the edge of the 18-yard area. There were those who felt that Newcastle goalkeeper might have made a more credible effort to stop it, but the reality is that the ball swerved viciously en route and the goalkeeper, wrongfooted, was unable to get his body into the line of the shot.

Given was replaced at halftime by Dean Kiely, but Greece were so entrenched at that point that the Charlton player was never required to make a stop of any significance.

With so many established players absent through injury, McCarthy was looking to players like Mark Kinsella and Gary Breen to steady the ship and, to their credit, both performed admirably.

Breen, thought to be under pressure to hold his place for the new World Cup campaign, was authoritative under limited pressure and in front of him Kinsella was at times as artful as ever.

Ken Cunningham, Staunton and, early on, Kevin Kilbane weighed in with reasonable contributions. But the end product was still not quite good enough to wrest the initiative from the visitors. Of the newcomers on view Richard Dunne, the Everton defender, did well without ever being required to prove his pace in recovery.

Fulham midfielder Steve Finnan quickly discovered that there is a huge gulf between second division football in England and international competition and despite the honesty of his effort rarely got to the pace of the game.

Barry Quinn, the Coventry player who was surprisingly preferred to Rory Delap in the starting line-up, looked impressively comfortable in the opening 20 minutes but then shipped a heavy knock which led to his retirement.

The effect was to give Delap an opportunity of making a point to the Republic of Ireland manager, and he spared nothing in the task, particularly in the second half when he moved up front following the departure of the hapless David Connolly.

Mahon, a youngster who has frequently impressed with Tranmere this season, also found the game passing him by on occasions but that was a remark which scarcely applied to Doherty. Tottenham's new £1 million signing from Luton put himself about with some abandon, flattening two Greeks within minutes of his arrival as a replacement for Finnan and generally endearing himself to the crowd.

For all the intensity of the Irish challenge, however, the fact is that with two or three notable exceptions the visitors' defence survived quite comfortably. They had no right to expect a reprieve in the 60th minute for example, when Delap and Robbie Keane contrived to send Finnan racing in on goal. But as goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis came out to meet him, the Fulham player got his angles wrong and the shot narrowly missed the target. That was a let-off for the Greeks and they had reason to feel reprieved for a second time in the 66th minute.

This time Mahon picked out Kinsella with a cross from he right, but from no more than four yards the midfielder failed to direct the ball wide of the goalkeeper.

Keane, less enterprising on this occasion than is usual, continued to battle to the end. But long before Scottish referee Hugh Dallas signalled the end a heavy sense of inevitability had settled on the game.

Republic of Ireland: Given (Kiely 46), Cunningham, R Dunne, Breen, Staunton, B Quinn (Delap 34), Finnan (Doherty 71), Kinsella, Kilbane, R Keane, Connolly (Mahon 54)
Subs Not Used: Maybury, Butler
Greece: Nikopolidis, Basinas (Goumas 75), Venetidis, Dabizas, Ouzounidis, Poursanidis, Georgiadis (Niniadis 88), Amanatidis, Liberopoulos, Tsartas (T Kiparissis 57), Lakis (Zikos 64)
Subs Not Used: Mavrogenidis, Eleftheropoulos, Nalitzis
Referee: Hugh Dallas (Scotland)