We knew it was bad. The statistics – damn them anyway – confirm just how bad it was.
You’ve got to hand it to this Irish side, they don’t know when they’re beaten.
Three late goals helped them qualify for Euro 2016 and, when we were there, Robbie Brady’s 86th minute header against Italy secured passage to the knock-out stages.
One game done in the World Cup 2018 Qualifiers and it already looks as though Ireland will take this one down to the wire. We rarely top qualifying groups.
The general consensus after last night’s 2-2 draw was that Ireland performed poorly but would leave Belgrade with an extremely handy point. Even Martin O’Neill found himself defending Ireland’s inability to stretch together many passages of meaningful play.
The official Uefa.com statistics for the game do not make for pleasant Irish reading.
Serbia had 59% possession [although the BBC claim it was 70%] and completed 371 of 409 attempted passes. That’s a passing accuracy of 90%.
Ireland’s tale of the passing tape is a sorrier sight:
94 completed passes from 138 attempts for 68% passing accuracy. Considering that there were four minutes of injury time played, that means Ireland completed one successful pass per minute at Stadion Rajko Mitić.
In fairness to Ireland, the pitch resembled a ploughed field and the incessant rain did not help matters. Still, this was a team that was missing only James McCarthy as a regular starter up against a Serbia side missing a couple of star names.
Nine of Ireland’s 11 starters are in the Premier League with the other two – Robbie Brady and Richard Keogh – in good Championship form.
The draw is in the record books and the point is registered on the Group D table. Hard as it may sound for anyone that watched those 94 minutes last night, the below-par performance will recede from the memory in time.
Moldova are up next and Ireland should do better. They must if they want to qualify for successive tournaments for the first time since Italia ’90.
The GAA Hour Hurling Show relives Tipperary’s sensational All-Ireland victory with Paidí Maher. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
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