Ireland lost 3-1 to England in Tallaght earlier, despite England having a players sent off at the end of the first half. In truth, England deserved the win. They were organised in defence, and broke with pace in possession, and looked far more likely to score than Ireland. While the boys in green did play good football, passing across the park, moving into space, there was precious little created for the isolated striker Conor Carty in the first half.
In the second half, Sobowale was moved up front to play alongside Carty, but England parked the bus and restricted the space for Ireland players. They didn't seem to have a Plan B. Plan A was to keep possession in defence, try to move up the park, push the full back (esp the left full) into the England half, but ran out of ideas after reaching the half way line, facing a blanket England defence.
I was impressed with Holt and Everitt on the right in the first half. Ebosele impressed on the left in the second half. I was disappointed that only two substitutions were made, the second with only a minute remaining. The front players were clearly exhausted and needed to be replaced. Ebosele was shown a yellow card right before the end of the game after a mistimed tackle when he really should have been withdrawn beforehand.
The penalty Ireland did score was right in front of me
Bookmarks