International friendly: Republic of Ireland 0 Switzerland 1
THE Republic of Ireland turned up to face the Swiss in Dublin Tuesday night and forgot to bring their nutcrackers. You don’t beat the Swiss without a pair.
They are one of the toughest teams on the European circuit. Nobody ever looks good against them either – and Ireland were no exception last night.
The home side huffed and puffed but never created enough clear-cut chances.
In fairness, the visitors didn’t create a lot either but the one chance they got, they took – a wicked free-kick scored by the mercurial Xherdan Shaquiri in the 22nd minute.
You could have switched your TV off at that exact moment or left the Aviva Stadium to beat the traffic and you wouldn’t have missed a thing thereafter.
Nevertheless, the 1-0 defeat shouldn’t put the FAI off from exploring the prospect of interim boss John O’Shea becoming Ireland’s permanent manager.
The fact that they have yet to find the right man after five months tells its own story while the best candidate for the job might already be in the technical area, with a wealth of experience behind him.
In the build-up to Tuesday night’s second friendly match O’Shea was in charge of, Dara O’Shea gave the Waterford man a resounding thumbs up to take the job on.
But the Swiss made life difficult from the first minute to the 93rd.
O’Shea made three changes to the team that drew with Belgium last Saturday. As expected, Gavin Bazunu came in for Caoimhin Kelleher in goal, Jason Knight was given a starting place ahead of Will Smallbone and the in-form Mickey Johnston occupied the wide left role with Chiedozie Ogbene suffering injury in the lead-up to this friendly.
While the Irish were buoyed by the manner of Saturday’s scoreless draw, the Swiss proved a more obdurate opponent.
They kept the ball better than the Belgians too and always looked threatening when they went forward in the first half.
The home side, as a consequence, were a little more hesitant in their work, evidenced by Dara O’Shea’s ill-timed foul on his Burnley team-mate Zeki Amdouni on the edge of his area in the 22nd minute.
And former Inter Milan and Liverpool playmaker Shaquiri found the bottom corner of the net with his trusty left boot.
While his effort was well struck, questions must be asked of Ireland’s defensive wall and how it didn’t have any protection behind Switzerland’s three-man false wall that separated to allow the ball to fly into the corner of the net.
Also, Bazunu might have taken one small step to his right to guard that side of his goal better.
Five minutes before the break, the Southampton ‘keeper was nearly punished again for a loose clearance that was controlled expertly by Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka, formerly of Arsenal, who fired from distance only to see his fine effort come back off the foot of the post.
It was a real let-off for the home side.
In between times, the Irish threatened a couple of times. Andrew Omobamidele didn’t get any purchase behind his header after O’Shea had headed Robbie Brady’s back post free-kick back into the danger zone.
Mikey Johnston also could have done better with his headed effort three minutes before the break after Jason Knight made a rare break into the Swiss penalty area and stood up a lovely back post cross – but the West Brom winger couldn’t direct it on target.
It was hard for the Irish to throw the kitchen sink at the Swiss in the second half because they were so adept at ‘parking the bus’ across their own 18-yard line.
O’Shea tried to shake things up as early as the 56th minute by making a triple substitution with Adam Idah, Matt Doherty and Will Smallbone coming in.
Idah, to his credit, added a bit of spark to the Irish attack and embarked on one impressive run but his shot from distance cleared the Swiss crossbar by some distance.
Doherty tried to probe, Seamus Coleman tried to force the issue too and Josh Cullen threaded a couple of balls through an eye of a needle but Switzerland were impenetrable and were more than content to play with virtually their entire team in their own half of the field.
Bazunu was a bystander in the second half. The Irish, though, do struggle for creativity in the middle of the field and the interim manager can do little about that.
The highlights of the two friendly games were Sammie Szmodics, who looks a real find. Robbie Brady and Seamus Coleman are far from finished too.
The off-form Evan Ferguson will come good despite two disappointing displays and has some decent suppliers either side of him now.
The Irish didn’t create a lot. Some things never change. But John O’Shea has performed as well as could have been expected in the role as interim boss across the two games.
The ball is firmly in the FAI’s court as everyone waits on some white smoke belching from Abbotstown some time in April.
