Last month, Heimir Hallgrímsson decided he would give most of Ireland’s Championship-based players this international window off to make the most of their holidays. It may prove a far-sighted decision, but it didn’t do much for excitement levels in advance of Friday night’s Senegal match, where the vibe was less “do or die” than “let’s get this over with”.
So the Irish starting XI contained eight 2024-25 Premier League players, five of whom have just been relegated. The Irish set-up was 4-4-1-1 without the ball and 3-4-2-1 with the ball, with Robbie Brady and Kasey McAteer as the wide players and Ryan Manning and Ipswich’s Jack Taylor supporting the centre-forward Adam Idah.
It was more disappointing than surprising to see Evan Ferguson left out of the starting line-up. Despite a terrible season at club level, he scored one of the best goals by an Ireland player in years in his last game here, against Bulgaria. Hallgrímsson went with Taylor as the player closest to Idah up front. Taylor is generally used by Ipswich in a defensive midfield position. His selection here in a more attacking role showed the importance the Ireland manager attaches to physical strength through the team.
That is consistent with an approach that puts a lot of importance on set pieces. In the second minute Ireland won a throw high on the left and Nathan Collins and Dara O’Shea both advanced into the Senegal penalty area for the long throw. Ireland’s opening goal midway through the first half came from a set-piece, though not one that seemed to have gone exactly according to plan.
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Matt Doherty was running in to attack Robbie Brady’s corner at the far post but O’Shea reached the ball first and headed it back towards the edge of the box. As Doherty and O’Shea appeared to argue over what had gone wrong, Manning clipped it back towards the penalty spot and Nathan Collins flicked a looping head over the advancing Senegal defenders. Kasey McAteer had reacted quickest and although Yahvann Diouf saved his first header, he latched on to the rebound and buried it low for his first Ireland goal. The joy on McAteer’s face reminded you that not everybody considered this match a meaningless chore.
McAteer was seeing a fair bit of the ball, Dara O’Shea often picking him out with raking passes from left centre back. The right-sided wide role has been variously filled by Mikey Johnston, Festy Ebosele and Chiedozie Ogbene in Hallgrímsson’s eight previous matches, but on this showing McAteer is as strong an option as any of these. Certainly he has the physicality the manager likes.
Ireland’s performance in the first half was the kind that managers love while the fans rose en masse at the 40-minute mark to beat the queues at the bar. Solid, organised, going close on a few occasions, denying the opponents any sight of goal, getting a goal and keeping a clean sheet? There may not have been much to cheer about, but there was very little to complain about either.
The start of the second half was enlivened by the invasion of a flock of seagulls, maybe attracted by the smell of half-time chips. They glided low over the seats in the west stand hunting for food before perching on the huge steel girders of the roof. The birds all sat facing the stands rather than the pitch.
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They were missing Senegal gradually working their way back into the game. Caoimhín Kelleher had had nothing to do in the first half, but early in the second he needed to stretch to tip a header on to the underside of the bar. A few minutes later he was scrambling another ball clear after O’Shea had inadvertently deflected a cross on to the Irish post.
The Irish goalkeeper’s luck couldn’t hold forever. Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye is a useful dribbler but Andrew Moran – who had just come on as substitute – will be disappointed with how easy Ndiaye made beating him look.
The Senegalese attacker dribbled in from the right before hitting a low cross that took a deflection away from goal along the way, wrong-footing the Irish defence and allowing Cherif Ndiaye to get off a low shot from eight yards. Kelleher stuck out his left foot to save the first effort but was powerless to stop Ismaila Sarr finishing off the rebound.
After four wins and four defeats, this was the first draw of Hallgrímsson’s tenure. The day before the match he had talked about how the identity and the principles of the team were becoming clearer all the time. The performance here bore that out to a certain extent, though this occasion lacked the intensity of a serious qualifying match.
It goes without saying that neither Senegal nor Ireland looked anywhere near the level of Ireland’s qualifying opponents, Portugal, as they came back to beat Germany in Munich in the Nations League semi-final during the week.
Come the World Cup qualifiers in the autumn, less will depend on what has happened in these two summer friendlies, and more on whether between now and then Evan Ferguson can find himself a club, get some minutes on the field, and play himself back into the kind of form he was showing two years ago.
