The Irish suffer at the hands of Spain
Carl Kinsella
Staff Writer
Ireland 0 – 4 Spain
Paying a small fortune to see your own team ripped apart in front of you and still outsinging the winning team’s fans by a solid 10,000 decibels is very much an Irish thing. Ireland were shown the door last night by a Spanish side who gloried in Ireland’s lacklustre performance. Two goals for Torres either side of a David Silva strike, capped off by Fabregas’ second in two games, ended what has been a nightmarish Euro 2012 for Ireland and ensured that Trap’s army would go no further than their Group C closer against Italy next Monday.
Disappointingly, Spain had learned more from Ireland’s defeat to Croatia than Ireland did. Mimicking their performance in the opening clash, the Irish defence gifted Spain a goal within the first five minutes. A pass along the floor to David Silva caused consternation in the Ireland box, Richard Dunne slid in with a tackle and the ball went uncleared. It found its way to the feet of Fernando Torres who skipped past a poor Stephen Ward with ease, to bury the ball into the roof of Shay Given’s goal, burying at least a few more Torres jokes along with it.
So quickly did Spain pull apart Ireland’s defence that it seemed very much as though we had started the game a goal down. Ireland’s philosophy of containment and pressurizing their opponents was frustrated by the ease and fluidity of Spain’s passing. For all the dogged ball chasing and heel-snapping of Whelan and Andrews, Spain’s control of the game went uninterrupted with possession stats a telling 76%-24%. While both Keane and Cox forced saves from Iker Casillas, Ireland never attacked with any danger. Ireland’s activity down the Spanish end was summed up when centre-half Gerard Pique danced around our supposed flair player Aiden McGeady before clearing the ball (to his own man, I might add).
Ireland seemed to have shored up their defence between the opening goal and half-time, but Ireland fans were subjected to another repeat of the Croatia game after the restart. Given punched a shot by Andres Iniesta straight into the path of man-of-the-match David Silva who wrong-footed four Irish players and slid the ball calmly into the bottom corner from ten yards. It was a sobering moment, and yet one that brought no change in Ireland’s approach to the game. Both Walters and James McClean were introduced to the game, but forget cats in the sack, Trappatoni had no rabbit-in-the-hat he could call upon to save the Irish team.
Torres, on the other hand, went on to justify his inclusion by Spanish coach Del Bosque. On 70 minutes, the diminutive David Silva, living proof that skill and effort are not mutually exclusive, outmuscled the Irish midfield to win the ball and released Torres. Torres held off Richard Dunne, a shadow of the man who damn near single-handedly held off Russia in Moscow, and stuck the ball confidently past Given. Torres’ removal minutes later elicited a ‘Thank God’ from Ronnie Whelan, commentating for RTE, but with twenty minutes still left to play, the defeat was yet to be turned to a rout.
Within the last ten minutes Spain took a short corner, Iniesta sliding the ball to Fabregas, his sole compatriot in a box packed with no less than eight Irish players, who obligingly slammed the ball into the far side of the Irish net. It seems unfeasibly poor but there it was – Spain had found fifth gear while Ireland bumbled around still looking for their keys. Were it not for at least two impressive saves by Shay Given, Ireland would have been on course for a far more demoralizing defeat. You know it was an unfortunate performance when you can tell yourself “thankfully, it was just the four”.
In the end, while the Irish players genuflected to the World Champions and allowed them to flex their muscles before their decisive tie with Croatia, the traveling fans did not. The current holders of both the World Cup and European Cup may have left the pitch with three points, but they left it to a five-minute rendition of Fields of Athenry. The attitude found among the Irish fans is that of hope, of eternal optimism and of fearlessness in the face of the greatest. Last night this simply did not translate from the stands to the pitch, and even Giovanni Trappatoni would agree the only viable option for an Irish man-of-the-match was the twelfth man. On Monday we’ll say our goodbyes to Euro 2012, and it might not miss our football, but by God will it miss our fans.
Croatia 1 – 1 Italy
In the earlier game, Italian veteran Andrea Pirlo’s wondrous free-kick helped see Italy through another extremely tough match, but thanks to Mario Mandzukic’s equalizer they left the field two points behind Croatia going into their last game against the Republic of Ireland.
Both sides enjoyed roughly 45 minutes of domination each and it was the Italians who had a stranglehold on the first half. If someone were to identify Antonio Cassano as a ‘stroke-victim’ in front of punters unaware of his medical misfortunes, jaws would hit the floor. He played a misfiring but energetic Balotelli through once or twice and made a mockery of Croatian centre-half Gordon Schildenfeld, jinking the ball past him to make a run into the box that in the end lead to nothing.
Balotelli himself certainly brought more to the table today than he did to the Spain game, but still only threated Croatian keeper Stipe Pletikosa with a rocket from the edge of the box that the goalie could punch clear. Pletikosa went on to cover himself in glory later on in the half when he made an breath-taking double save from Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio who was through on goal but could not beat the stopper.
The Italians didn’t have to wait much longer for that last vital cylinder to fire and when Balotelli opportunistically went to ground an inch outside the area and won a (very, very debatable) free-kick it was the mastery of 33-year-old Andrea Pirlo that saw the ball rise over the Croatian wall before dipping perfectly into the corner of Pletikosa’s near post. Now one-nil up against a Croatian side that had offered virtually nothing by way of attack in the first half, Italy looked good to score a few more. On one of the few occasions Croatia did breach the Italian defence, Nikica Jelavic hauled Giorgio Chiellini to the ground and looked at Howard Webb for a penalty. As a Premiership player, Jelavic knows Webb’s faults better than most but the referee made the right call and gave a free-kick out.
Croatian coach Slaven Bilic, who is poised to resign after the tournament ends, must have had stern words with his players during the half-time break as Croatia came out from their corner swinging. Modric, something of a Croatian Pirlo, began to play much further forward, threatening Gianluigi Buffon on three separate occasions. Buffon was yet to make any dramatic saves but the momentum was with the team in the red-and-white chequered jerseys now. The drama came up the other end when Darijo Srna contested a header with Thiago Motta and sent his elbow right into the back of the Italians head. Intentional? Maybe not. Bloody sore? No question about it. Motta was replaced by Ricardo Montolivo moments later, Cesar Prandelli looking a little wary of what seemed like a vengeful Motta.
Balotelli failed to complete the 90 minutes again, taken off for last week’s goal-scorer Antonio Di Natale. Balotelli is currently vying with Cristiano Ronaldo for the tournament’s most disappointing player. While neither is playing particularly badly, neither has been impressive for their country so far and both have been outshone by their team-mates. However, neither Montolivo nor Di Natale had the desired impact and on 72 minutes, Croatia pulled a goal back and put themselves in a something of a commanding position ahead of their pivotal clash with group-leaders Spain on Monday.
Croatian substitute Pranjic lobbed a hanging cross in over the Italian defence and Chiellini misjudged the flight of the ball in a most un-Italian manner. The ball dropped over his head and to last night’s real Super Mario, Mario Mandzukic, who had time to take a touch a hammer it in off the post, leaving Buffon disgusted with his defenders. Mandzukic has now hit three in his last two games, having only been given four chances. His goal today is further evidence that the player is a very real threat from anywhere within the 18 yard box and should certainly worry the Spaniards.
For all their solid build-up play and the marvellous passing of Cassano, Pirlo and Marchisio, Italy lack a killer instinct as many predicted they would. Croatia are perhaps one rung below Italy in terms of footballing prowess but last night they proved that having an instinctive finisher is worth eleven players who can create chances but can’t finish them. The Italians, who certainly had the better play outside either 18-yard-box, can count themselves lucky to still be in this and will need to a way to split a defence. Failing that, they need to find a way to stop their own from splitting.
