Slovakia 2 - 2 Rep. of Ireland

Ireland started brightly taking the game to Slovakia and getting numbers in advanced positions. After just 7mins they were ahead. Robbie Keane dummied Kilbane’s cross form the left to allow Stephen Ireland to finish calmly from close range.

Ireland appeared comfortable as not even the goal seemed to fire-up the Slovaks as their passing game never looked like coming together. However, as the half drew on Ireland’s casual approach allowed Slovakia to finally get into the game. As the Irish defence got deeper and deeper, the home side began creating chances with only some steady goalkeeping from Shay Given keeping Ireland’s lead intact.

The home crowd became increasingly louder as they sensed a goal and on 36mins they had one. Some sloppy defending from a corner allowed a near post flick-on to be nodded in at the far post by Klimpl. Stephen Kelly really should have done better on the post as he seemed to shrink as the ball went past him into the net.

Kelly’s team-mates weren’t doing much better as Stephen Ireland was hardly a presence in the centre and McGeady, on the right, consistently gave the ball away. Ireland were lucky to reach the interval all square as “Another Cyprus” looked on the cards.

Ireland began the better in the second as they looked more eager to get on with the task in hand. Their application, as opposed to genuinely creative play, payed off on 57mins as Kevin Doyle had the room to set himself up on the edge of the Slovak box to unleash a screamer into the top left-hand corner.

Ireland looked set to repeat their errors of the first half as almost immediately Slovakia had the Irish defence at sixes and sevens. A whipped in ball from the left saw Dunne, two yards out and facing his own goal, forced to clear a ball that could have gone anywhere.

The following passages of play saw Ireland starting to look more solid whilst still getting forward as Slovakia seemed to run out of steam. They were far from convincing towards the end as Dunne was repeatedly called on to perform heroics at the heart of the defence as Slovakia occasionally made something of their possession.

It was looking like Ireland had done just enough to nick the points when on 91mins the Slovaks got their equaliser. John O’Shea was slow to close down Cech as he came on to the ball to hit a sweet strike past Given. As with Kelly for the Slovak’s first goal, O’Shea seemed to wince at the task of blocking the ball in what summed up the lack of commitment from many of his colleagues.

Man of the Match: Richard Dunne – came to the rescue on several occasions and single-handedly prevented what could have been a much worse result