SOCCER/Brazil 2 Rep of Ireland 0:THERE WAS a time, not so long ago, when the exploits of a handful of Ireland's best players were regularly celebrated in this neck of woods. Last night, though, the cream of the country's current crop had to work flat out simply to contain the genius of the Brazilians who, if you really can read anything into this rather comfortable win, certainly possess the confidence to challenge for a sixth World Cup title this summer.

The statistics, of course, never looked promising for the Republic of Ireland going into the game. Brazil had won three and drawn one of the sides’ previous encounters and three of their four outings here at the Emirates where Italy and Argentina were amongst the other teams beaten in recent years.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s men, to be fair, succeeded rather well in holding their own through the early part of what turned out to be an entertaining friendly for the 40,082 mainly Brazilian supporters who turned out. However, as the night wore on the demands on having to do so much defensive work simply took its toll and Dunga’s side might well have had another couple of goals by the end to show for their late dominance.

As it was, Keith Andrews was unfortunate to go down as the first scorer for the South Americans when he stepped in front of goalkeeper Shay Given to turn home Robinho’s shot from a tight angle.

Robinho added the second goal 13 minutes from time having previously had one disallowed for offside and had passed up at least two other glaring opportunities.

Trapattoni had said he was looking for his team to pick up where they had left off in Paris, in terms of organisation, energy and enterprise and over the opening stages his players seemed intent on living up to his expectations.

As the half wore on, Brazil did begin to edge things but the sides would have gone in level at the break had it not been for another sort of throwback to the Stade de France, an error by a linesman, with the decision of the English one on this occasion to keep his flag down as Robinho slipped a fraction early through the Irish lines to play a key part in the opening goal.

Though there was no denying the qualify of the passing and movement from the moment Damien Duff’s weak attempt at a cross was cut out by Felipe Melo and the Brazilians swept up-field courtesy of Kaka and Maicon, it was a rather cruel end to a slightly frantic first half for an Irish side that worked terribly hard and made an admirable effort to take the game to the five-times world champions over the opening 20 minutes or so.

Trapattoni’s men had four corners and a couple of fairly decent chances to open the scoring during that spell and their determination to close down opponents and break forward in numbers suggested we were going to be in for a rather more engaging contest than a glance at the team sheets might initially have suggested.

Critically, the Irish back four showed early on that they were up for the expected challenge with Paul McShane and Stephen Kelly, in particular, making impressive interventions at key moments.

On the break, the Brazilians were always going to pose a major threat but the Irish showed they could step in to disrupt the flow of the opposition play, as they did when Duff intercepted a Melo crossfield ball or Andrews coolly dispossessed Gilberto Silva in central midfield.

When the Brazilian breaks did reach the danger area, though, the Irish generally coped well as, most memorably, when Robinho covered 40 metres at considerable speed before feeding Adriano who was promptly dispossessed by a fine Kelly challenge.

Robinho arrived to try his luck with a follow-up shot but it was blocked by McShane amid halfhearted appeals by the former Manchester City winger for handball.

At the other end, there was some pressure too with Duff and Robbie Keane causing problems for Dunga’s defence.

The Irish skipper, looking generally untroubled by the knee injury that had threatened to keep him out of the game, engineered Ireland’s first real chance when he darted into the area from the right, swivel inside his man but could not then get any power behind his left-footed shot.

Moments later, Duff tried much the same trick from the other side with much the same result. However, the Fulham winger did more damage from out wide 16 minutes later when, after his corner was cleared back out as far as him, the Dubliner then picked out Doyle whose header forced a smart save from Julio Cesar.

Given who, like Kevin Kilbane, was making a record-breaking 103rd appearance for his country last night, produced something similar from an Adriano free-kick not long afterwards.

For the most part the Irish looked comfortable with their attempts to close down opponents in possession, combined with the odd trip under pressure, generally proving successful enough to limit the options enjoyed by the likes of Kaka, Robinho and Ramires in the danger areas.

Quite simply, though, the Irish couldn’t maintain the levels of effort required and as the game went on the Brazilians were afforded ever more space into which to run by Irish players whose tiredness also prompted a growing number of errors, especially when the influential pair of Glenn Whelan and Duff left the fray in the 56th minute.

Seán St Ledger was caught badly in possession by Daniel Alves seconds after the Barcelona defender had entered the game and was fortunate to see his opponent’s shot on the turn, at what was essentially an open goal, skip wide. McShane and Andrews were also easily brushed aside at various stages late on with the latter incident leading to Robinho finding the net only for the goal to be disallowed for offside.

Moments later the winger made amends with a wonderful goal to which Kaka and Grafite contributed before the former Real Madrid star Kaka applied a magnificent finish. By this stage the majority of the crowd were relishing the skills on show.

Trapattoni will be relieved there weren’t any more goals, that James McCarthy finally got to make his senior international debut as a second-half substitute and, most of all, that there will be no team of anything like this quality to be overcome in the European Championship qualifying campaign that kicks off in the autumn.