Little Latin magic as Irish edge victory

SOCCER/Rep Ireland 2 Paraguay 1:IT COULD scarcely be said to have been a coming of age for a 71-year-old Italian with an employment history like his, but three debuts, two goals and a win made Giovanni Trapattoni's 21st game in charge of the Republic of Ireland a satisfactory enough affair last night at the RDS.

All things considered, Kevin Doyle’s man-of-the-match winning performance was the highlight of the evening, but second-half run-outs for Cillian Sheridan, Paul Green and Keith Fahey may prove to be of more lasting significance after the manager had originally gone with a safe starting line-up.

At close to full strength, to be fair, Ireland started brightly with Doyle heading the hosts in front just seven minutes in.

The Wexford man did well to pounce on what must have been a fairly unexpected opportunity, but the Paraguayan coach must have wondered about the wisdom of bringing Roque Santa Cruz back to help defend the free that led to the goal with the Manchester City striker carelessly turning Damien Duff’s cross on to the angle of his own side’s woodwork and then losing out to the Irishman in the race for the follow-up.

Before the half was out, Santa Cruz might have conceded a penalty too with the 28-year-old appearing to trip Liam Lawrence inside the area. The referee waved play on and Lawrence had to wait a little longer for his moment.

However, it came, six minutes before the break when Stephen Kelly’s cross was chested into his path by Doyle and, after Robbie Keane had declined the swivelled volley, the Stoke City midfielder drove firmly past Aldo Bobadilla from a tight angle, with the help of a slight deflection off defender Denis Caniza.

Suddenly, the scoreline looked a little harsh on the visitors who had made a good deal of the running up until that point.

Through the middle they had been well enough contained by an Irish midfield that looked to be playing well within itself, but out wide, they found space to push into, particularly out on the left where Claudio Morel repeatedly found room to break free of both Lawrence and Stephen Kelly.

Up front, though, they seemed incapable of posing much of a threat. Santa Cruz, who has been prone to injury all season in the Premier League, roamed so much that he was rarely around the Irish box when his side’s best chances there arose while his two striking partners, with a couple of caps between them before last night, still seemed to be taking it all in through those early stages.

They had their chances with the central defensive partnership of Paul McShane and Seán St Ledger not always looking entirely on top of things, but on the one occasion that a Paraguayan actually managed to get a decent shot away Antolin Alcarez’s effort was well pushed wide by goalkeeper Keiren Westwood.

Things were better further upfield, though, with the Irish producing some neat exchanges in the centre and some dangerous runs out wide where Damien Duff, in particular, looked lively despite all the strains of what has been a very long season for the Dubliner with English side Fulham.

Robbie Keane maintained a low-key presence around the Paraguayan area while Doyle hustled and bustled here, there and everywhere, winning the ball, holding it up and almost always using it to very good effect.

At the interval then, the Irish were two up and heading for their first win by more than a goal since August 2007 when Keane and Shane Long both scored twice in Aarhus.

As they had in Mainz, when leading Georgia 2-0, though, they promptly conceded with Jonathan Santana at the heart of a move that ended, after some poor Irish defending on the edge of their area, with Borussia Dortmund’s Lucas Barrios creating a yard of space for himself before firing low past Westwood from 15 metres to score on his debut.

Glenn Whelan had a decent night overall, but he won’t enjoy the reruns of the goal for after Santana had played the ball fairly effortlessly through McShane, the midfielder had the chance to do a good deal more than simply stand off Barrios as the striker picked his spot.

It was an unfortunate lapse by the midfielder, though, who along with Keith Andrews had generally controlled the game’s central area.

After the goal, nevertheless, there followed some nervous moments for the home side as the South Americans stepped things up in the hope of avoiding the defeat.

There was the odd embarrassing one too, most memorably the mix-up between Westwood and St Ledger that left the centre back fuming at his goalkeeper’s failure to come and collect a low cross from the left by Rodolfo Gamarra that just missed the far post by inches.

The visitors lost their away again through the closing stages, though, as repeated substitutions disrupted the rhythm of the game.

Green, Sheridan and, to one of the loudest cheers of the night, Fahey all arrived on to make their debuts and while none made any dramatic impact on the remainder of the game, all settled in well enough and would be expected to benefit from the experience.

Trapattoni will be especially pleased with that and the win will also cheer the Italian as he looks to build on the improvement of his first campaign in charge and fashion a side that can go one better than simply push the favourites to the finish-line next time around.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Westwood (Coventry City); Kelly (Fulham), McShane (Hull City), St Ledger (Preston North End), O’Shea (Manchester Utd); Lawrence (Stoke City), Andrews (Blackburn Rovers), Whelan (Stoke City), Duff (Fulham); Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Doyle (Wolves). Subs: Sheridan (Celtic) for Keane (63 mins), Green (Derby County) for Whelan (69 mins), Fahey (Birmingham City) for Duff (76 mins), Foley (Wolves) for Lawrence (83 mins), Long (Reading) for Doyle (87 mins).

PARAGUAY: Bobadilla; Da Silva, Caniza, Alcarez; Vera, Santana, Riveros, Morel; Santa Cruz, Barrios, Gamarra. Subs: Torres, Bonet and Ortigoza for Morel, Vera and Riveros (66 mins), Martinez for Santa Cruz (77 mins), Aquino for Santana (81 mins).

Referee: J Lapperriere (Switzerland).