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England 3 Republic of Ireland 0
Stephen Kenny insisted beforehand that he had wanted this game; one he hoped would be a special occasion that could help his players improve. However, as a team greatly weakened by unexpected absences was well beaten at Wembley, the Dubliner could have been forgiven for lamenting the risk involved.
The stakes were pretty low, of course, but Irish fans had liked their team’s long undefeated streak against England. That not only bit the dust here, but it was the worst loss suffered in the match since one in the World Cup qualifiers 63 years ago.
For Gareth Southgate, the evening will be a welcome generator of confidence both for a team defeated last month by Denmark and for the two players who made international debuts. It’s a bit more difficult to accurately assess what the benefits were for the visitors, but after so many games against ranked roughly the same level, they were certainly reminded of the fact that one better will punish the kind of defense they produced at times. here. Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and, from the penalty spot, Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals that decided it and the truth could have been more.
Kenny’s day started to go bad early. At lunchtime it was learned that James McCarthy had left the team for family reasons and when the team was announced it emerged that Seamus Coleman had been ruled out due to a recurrence of a thigh strain. Within a quarter of an hour, John Egan was gone too, colliding with Conor Hourihane under one of the first corners of Mason Mount and never fully recovering.
Mount was only starting with the corners. There had been 10 of them for the break and Ireland’s inability to fully deal with the issues they raised contributed to the two goals they conceded in the first half.
All were cleared initially and Ireland had the opportunity both times to get the ball out more fully. But Matt Doherty and Cyrus Christie headed in Harry Winks’ direction just outside the box and made the defenders pay, floating the ball after 18 minutes for Harry Maguire to head home, moving laterally after the 30 to Jack Grealish, who fed Sancho who entered before finding the bottom corner.
Among the frustrations Kenny had to deal with was Shane Duffy’s inability at key moments around set pieces to handle Maguire and the sheer ease with which the Manchester United defender managed Adam Idah at the other end. .
To be fair, the 19-year-old was given very little to work with and repeatedly had to sink awfully deep to get involved at all, but on the few occasions he was given something to pursue, he struggled with Maguire who was a little smarter in terms of his movement and stronger.
When Daryl Horgan did very well after a good ball from Jeff Hendrick on the England defense in a space inside the box early on, the forward was not sufficiently attuned to the opportunity that was unfolding before him. It would be the final stages, when Alan Browne and Ronan Curtis got into shots and Duffy made his way before the visitors had a chance to become that clear again.
If Ireland had left one of them, it would have flattered them. England’s 3-4-3 formation is seen as a work in progress with concerns that it leaves them vulnerable in central midfield, but they dominated in that department. Kenny’s team should have outnumbered them, but they rarely looked like this, at least after England’s first goal.
Inevitably, it was hard not to look at Grealish and wonder, from an Irish perspective, what it might have been. The 25-year-old is struggling to get into the Southgate squad on a regular basis, but this, his third appearance, will have done him no harm.
As he moved in front of the Irish defense, he helped open space around him, and his control over the rhythm and direction of the English attack caused the Irish defender four difficulties until he left an hour later.
Several of England’s substitutions made them stronger, but Southgate will have been pleased to involve 17-year-old Jude Bellingham for the first time and the teenager made it through the final stages quite comfortably.
This was the best spell in Ireland. Jayson Molumby impressed again and there were finally some half chances to reflect, but the truth is that the home team was wasting time after Christie cut Bukayo Saka inside the area.
Ronan Curtis’ shot from 25 yards was the only occasion that England goalkeeper Dean Henderson at the time had to make what could be described as a real save, but like in the beginning, Ireland at least retained possession with some composure. again.
It is not the first time that with Kenny the positive is the way the team passes the ball and the apparent ability of the young players who have had very little first team football at club level to make the leap. And once again, the coach has been extremely unlucky with the amount of important players he did not have.
However, problems persist, and whatever Wales is, it would certainly do well to beat Bulgaria next week to lift spirits before the Christmas break.
England: Pope (Burnley); Keane (Everton), Maguire (Manchester United), Mings (Aston Villa); James (Chelsea), Winks (Tottenham Hotspur), Mount (Chelsea), Saka (Arsenal); Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Grealish (Aston Villa). Substitutes: Henderson (Manchester United) for Pope (break), Maitland-Niles (Arsenal) for Mings and Foden (Manchester City) for Grealish (both 61 minutes), Abraham (Chelsea) for Calvert-Lewin (63 minutes), Bellingham ( Borussia Dortmund) for Mount (73 minutes).
Republic of Ireland: Randolph (West Ham); Christie (Nottingham Forest), Duffy (Celtic), Egan (Sheffield United), Doherty (Tottenham); Hendrick (Newcastle Utd), Hourihane (Aston Villa); Horgan (Wycombe Wanderers); Browne (Preston), O’Dowda (City of Bristol) Idah (City of Norwich). Subs: O’Shea (West Brom) for Egan (14 minutes), Brady (Burnley) for Horgan and McClean (Stoke City) for O’Dowda (both 60 minutes), K Long (Burnley) for Christie (61 minutes), Molumby (Brighton) for Hourihane and Curtis (Portsmouth) for Idah (71 minutes).
Referee: C del Cerro (Spain)
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