A disappointing Saturday evening in Dublin for Irish supporters as England won this Nations League opener with goals from two former Irish players, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish. The Republic followed up with another loss on Tuesday night vs. Greece, also 2-0 at home at the Aviva Stadium.
This first was a game Irish supporters had been looking forward to since the Nations League draw was made last February. But it turned out to be a damp squib from an Irish point of view.
After watching England struggling in their early games at Euro 2024 in Germany Irish supporters thought that maybe with a new manager Heimer Hallgrimsson in charge, the boys in green could cause an upset. Hallgrimsson was joint manager of Iceland when they beat England at Euro 2016.
Ireland, who started with 8 EPL players, began brightly and there were chances for Jayson Molumby, whose header sailed over the bar, and Sammie Szmodics, making his competitive debut, had his effort saved by Jordan Pickford.
Declan Rice opened the scoring for England after 11 minutes after two England chances in quick succession. Caoimhin Kelleher denied Anthony Gordon with a fine stop and that was followed up by an excellent stop by Nathan Collins who denied Harry Kane, but the ball fell to Rice who smashed it into the top right-hand corner.
England got their second goal 15 minutes later following a quick, flowing move on the right hand side. A quick one-two between Bukayo Saka and Rice saw the latter set up Jack Grealish who slotted the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Rice didn’t celebrate after scoring and later explained his reasons. He said “My nan and grandad on my dad’s side of the family are all Irish. I think to have celebrated would have been really disrespectful of me. I didn’t want to do that, to be honest with you. Obviously I had such an amazing time playing for Ireland in the first-team, the 19s and 21s. I have great memories that will live with me. I don’t have a bad word to say, I wish them all the best.’’
England, whose interim manager is former Irish international Lee Carsley, were well on top with 82 per cent of possession in the first half.
Ireland best chance in the second half came after a break down the right by Chiedozie Ogbene and his low cross was met first time by Sammie Szmodics but his effort went just wide of the English goal. This was followed up with another chance for Szmodics as he latched onto another Ogbene pass and he switched the ball to Molumby whose effort from the edge of the area went over the bar.
Kelleher, who had a good game, was called into action to deny England a third goal as Gordan’s low effort was stopped by the Irish keeper at his near post. Then in the closing stages the Cork-born keeper made another fine save as England sub Jarod Bowen hit a high effort that the Irish ‘keeper pushed away.
Evan Ferguson, who hasn’t played in the EPL for Brighton this season, was a late sub and newcomer Kasey McAteer made his debut replacing Idah.
The attendance was 50,0359 and it included British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who earlier in the afternoon had met with Taoiseach Simon Harris for talks at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park.
After the game Heimir Hallgrimsson felt that England exposed weaknesses and a lack of confidence in the Irish team. He said: “We have to admit that we were second best in this game by far. First and foremost, I think it’s confidence in decision-making and initiative that was the biggest difference. They exposed our weaknesses. We can learn a lot from this game. We were too open for Rice’s breakthrough goal, a pass through the heart of the team should never happen at any level of football.’”
The manager admitted that he is still learning about this group of players and stressed that assistants John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy had a strong input into team selection. He said: “I’m learning as we go. Hopefully, I will have more authority when time goes on. For sure, I need a lot of help in the first one or two camps, not knowing the character of the players.”
Irish starting XI: Kelleher, Coleman, O’Shea, Collins, Brady, Doherty, Smallbone, Molumby, Ogbene, Idah, Szmodics. Subs: O’Brien for Coleman, Knight for Doherty, Browne for Smallbone, McAteer for Idah, Ferguson for Brady.
In the other game in our group Greece beat Finland 3-0 in Athens on Saturday.
Meanwhile Northern Ireland got their Nations League campaign off to a good start with a 2-0 win over Luxembourg at Windsor Park on Thursday. Defenders Paddy McNair and Daniel Ballard were the scorers as Michael O’Neill’s team recorded what was only their second win in 17 Nations League games. But no points from their trip to Bulgaria on Sunday where they lost 1-0 in the Hristo Botev Stadium. Manager Michael O’Neill wasn’t happy with the surface of the pitch, but admitted that it was the same for both teams.
