The outstanding defensive performance that saw Ireland keep a clean sheet against Portugal was no doubt part of Heimir Hallgrímsson’s plan, particularly given the earlier news of Hungary’s win. It is something that is almost expected from Irish teams – to be gritty, to be hard to score against and to make life difficult for the other team’s attacking players.
But the attacking threat they posed against Portugal was something of a shock, only a month after they failed to register a shot – or even force a corner – against the same team in Lisbon. Ireland did not become an attacking behemoth all of a sudden, they only had six shots on target, but when they did counter attack it was done decisively.
A big reason for that was the excellent forward partnership of Chiedozie Ogbene and Troy Parrott, who caused Portugal’s defence all sorts of problems in the first half, helped ably by Finn Azaz when he could.
Ogbene’s hard work – running in behind from long balls, competing and causing problems for Gonçalo Inácio and Diogo Dalot with his pace and power – made a big impact on the match.
RM Block
The double threat of Ogbene and Parrott showed in a chance in the first half where a good ball in behind created a two-v-two with Portugal’s defence. With both of them moving at pace, and Parrott attracting one of the defenders, Ogbene went one-on-one and curled a shot from the edge of the box against the post. It was a quick counter that deserved a goal.
The fact that Portugal were so exposed from one pass in behind was because their set-up was susceptible to counters, as they pushed their full-backs so far up. With Portugal dominating possession, right-back João Cancelo played much of the first half like an inside forward, and admittedly he did cause Ireland problems offensively.
But gaps were left at the back, and Cancelo was taken off at half-time. The damage, however, had already been done and could not be rescued after Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card.
That damage was inflicted by Parrott. With two goals on what he called the “best night of his life”, he announced himself as arguably Ireland’s best attacker. Confidence is everything for strikers and with 13 goals in 14 games this season for AZ Alkmaar, the Dubliner has been enjoying his football.
His first goal was a poacher’s finish after a lot of the work had been done by Liam Scales in smartly heading the ball back from the corner, but it did not happen by accident.
“That’s a part of the game I’ve really, really developed over the past few years, being in the right areas and scoring goals,” Parrott said.
His second, meanwhile, was the type of top-class strike that he has been showing regularly in the Eredivisie. After a long pass by O’Shea, Parrott took the ball down, dribbled and shot into the corner, leaving the keeper with no chance.
“I saw the space open up between [the defender’s] legs and it’s always difficult for the goalkeeper to get there when it’s back across the body,” he said.
Parrott makes it sound much easier than it looked, but it shows how goalscoring is second nature for him. Success is not a straight line and it is easy to forget that Parrott was once scoring against the likes of Barcelona and Inter Milan at youth level for Tottenham.
His seemingly risky move at the time to Excelsior Rotterdam, and subsequent move to AZ Alkmaar, after struggling to get his career going in the Championship, has been an inspired one.
Evan Ferguson has contributed plenty to Ireland’s World Cup campaign too, but it was noticeable how much better Parrott’s holdup play against Portugal was compared to Ferguson’s in Lisbon. Parrott had 17 touches, only one unsuccessful, compared to Ferguson’s 14 touches with four unsuccessful. Parrott won two of his four duels, while Ferguson only won one of 16 away from home against the same centre-backs, Rúben Dias and Inácio.
While Parrott’s overall link play was superior, it tells as much about the lack of support Ferguson got in Lisbon as he cut a lonely figure up front. Caoimhin Kelleher’s kicking also told a story over the two games. When he got the ball in Dublin, he played a Gaelic-football-style long pass immediately over the top, an effective tactic the Portuguese defence were reluctant to deal with. In Lisbon, Kelleher often pushed the limits of time wasting and slowing down the game.
All the way through the team, from goalkeeper to the strikers, Ireland were more positive and it paid off for a famous night in Dublin.
