There’s going for it and then there’s going for it.
Everyone knows and everyone knew the situation. 2-1 down at half time, the Republic needed two second half goals to rescue their World Cup dreams and, whilst O’Neill was asked afterwards if he rolled the dice with his changes, the odds of return there were too short to really capture the gamble that Ireland took.
It started off well. Not only were the hosts a goal to the good but they were outplaying Denmark and they were pressing them all over the field.
McClean pulled agonisingly wide after getting on the end of a scintillating move. Daryl Murphy was inches away from scoring his best ever goal with the one decent delivery he was offered.
Then sloppy positioning and sloppy defending at a corner undid Shane Duffy’s opener before sloppier Stephen Ward play gifted the Danes with a second.
With two half time changes though, O’Neill gutted the Irish of their spine.
Removing Arter and Meyler left them with no defence-minded midfielder and it left huge gaps for the visitors to exploit.
That led to Hendrick being exposed one-on-two with Denmark’s attacking midfielders and it left space for Christian Eriksen to just pick his spot and curl home.
That came after the hour mark when one goal for Ireland would’ve changed the entire outlook of the game and, more importantly, one goal for Denmark finished the tie. As much as the Irish needed two goals, it was crucial that, first and foremost, they did not concede.
But they did concede so O’Neill then made the strangest sub yet.
Shane Long for Ciaran Clark
At first glance, it seemed grand. Clark wasn’t playing well and another attacker obviously wasn’t a terrible idea when three goals were required. It seemed like Ireland were going three at the back but then Brady comes to full back and, bizarrely, Ward is brought into the middle.
Ward wasn’t playing well either and Clark is a better centre half. What it did is left the Irish looking like this.
It didn’t really matter at that stage but Ward playing in the middle then gifted Eriksen with his hat-trick and the Danes with their fourth goal.
McClean was basically playing where he had to, putting out fires, carrying the ball as far as he could and Murphy was coming deep as a stream of players just floated around the middle.
The changes felt like O’Neill had saved game in his Football Manager career before coming into the match and he didn’t mind throwing boys anywhere because he could always quit game and try again if they lost.
Unfortunately, there won’t be any trying for Ireland for this stage again – not for another four years.
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