Ireland take a draw and away goal from Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 Ireland 1

Like a kid who is three quarters of the way to learning to ride a bicycle, Ireland have done the hardest part of qualifying for next summer’s European Championships and yet there is still so much potential for them to stumble.

Here, they got the away goal Martin O’Neill craved and without losing; so they hold the upper hand. The balance of this opening game, though, suggests that finishing the job on Monday will not be at all straightforward even if Bosnia’s failure to win at home, or even to make Darren Randolph work a lot harder, is fresh evidence that they are not a side to be hugely feared.

Their knack for conceding goals, even after the mid-campaign improvement that enabled them to salvage their place in the play-offs after a terrible start, had offered hope to the Irish beforehand and Robbie Brady’s wonderful strike almost out of nothing eight minutes from time certainly underlined their vulnerability on that score.

If only Ireland could have held out from then the task in the second leg would look that much more manageable. But the locals got themselves back on terms within three minutes as James McClean allowed Ognjen Vranješ to get past him then cross for Edin Džeko , who for once had a yard to play with six yards out. The Roma striker, does not, as they say, miss them from there.

Ireland may have been second best almost from the outset but by the break there was somehow still a greater sense that they could get something out of the game. The hosts looked stronger, sharper and certainly more capable of retaining the ball when they had it but they did not look great and Randolph had only really a couple of straightforward saves to make during the first 45 minutes.

For a fleeting few minutes, it had seemed as though they might really look to take the game to their opponents but even after it became clear that they would instead spend the bulk of the night on the back foot, Bosnia did little to suggest they could turn all their possession and pressure into goals.

The backbone of their game-plan looked clear with Mensur Mujdža, Miralem Pjanic and occasionally Džeko looking to release Edin Višca so that he would run at Stephen Ward and in terms of the crosses it yielded the approach proved something of a success.

Inside, however, the home side repeatedly passed up half-chances with some last-ditch Irish defending accounting for some but others, like Ervin Zukanovic’s failed attempt to turn home a Pjanic corner that should never have reached him, far harder to explain.

Džeko was quiet through those opening exchanges and Pjanic’s most memorable contribution was a powerfully struck shot from the edge of the area that flew over when really he should have done better.

Captaining the side in the absence Robbie Keane and John O’Shea, Glenn Whelan could only exert a limited influence on events out wide but the midfielder turned in an erratic performance, characterised by a two-minute spell when he anticipated a problem well and cut it out with a sliding challenge on Višca only, a couple of minutes later, to hopelessly misdirect a simple ball forward while under no pressure whatsoever.

He had a hand too in Ward’s first-half booking with the pair somehow failing between them to halt Višca’s advance leaving the left back little option but to take a yellow so as to prevent a bigger problem. Having been recalled on the strength of his performance against Germany, though, despite being completely out of the first team picture at Burnley, the caution only served to leave him looking more vulnerable.

If Ireland had been better able to keep the ball when they had it then he might not have been tested quite so regularly, but some of the attempts at close control or passing by the visiting players, Brady included, were remarkably poor, a rare exception being a low through ball by Ward late in the half that almost set Wes Hoolahan on his way.

Ward was further forward at that point than Séamus Coleman can have been in the entire game with the Everton defender clearly under orders not to end up on the wrong side of Senad Lulic, and that too greatly hindered Ireland’s hopes of posing a threat of their own.

Hoolahan’s’s problem on that occasion, meanwhile, was the ease with which Toni Šunjic blocked his progress and the greater physicality of the locals was a recurring theme for O’Neill’s men with James McCarthy, for instance, easily held at bay at one point by Džeko as he turned then took off in another direction. Still, McCarthy and co stuck to the defensive game-plan, working hard and somehow getting by.

Bosnia, one suspected, had another gear to go to for the game was not being played at the sort of pace that would surely have left the Irish in more trouble, but, if so, they seemed to be saving it for Dublin with the second half slipping by in much the same slipshod way that the first had.

Ireland rode their luck at times with a particularly dangerous looking cross early in the second half cut out by Clark, whose touch took the ball directly to Randolph.

The locals didn’t get the free they wanted and Clark might have trouble explaining what else he might have been attempting if not a back pass, but the visitors moved swiftly on just as they did a couple of minutes later when Jeff Hendrick made a terrible mess of his attempt to clear from inside the box. Randolph then had to make his best save of the night from Lulic who was clear but trying to slip the ball beyond the goalkeeper from a tight angle.

The air of foreboding grew when Pjanic finally got a free to take from within shooting range but his strike was poor and Emir Spahic’s follow-up curled softly into the arms of a grateful Randolph.

Moments later, as the fog thickened, the game came to life with Brady turning his man and then brilliantly finding the bottom left corner with a firm strike. Bosnia were suddenly playing catch up which they did but Ireland, they know, hold the potentially decisive advantage over them as the two sides head for Dublin.

Ireland now just need to make sure they stay in the saddle.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Randolph (West Ham); Coleman (Everton), Keogh (Derby County), Clark (Aston Villa), Ward (Burnley); McCarthy (Everton), Whelan (Stoke City); Hendrick (Derby County), Hoolahan (Norwich City), Brady (Norwich City); Murphy (Ipswich Town).

Subs: McClean (West Brom) for Hoolahan (59 mins), Wilson (Stoke City) for Ward (67 mins), McGeady (Everton) for Brady (86 mins)

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Begovic; Mujdža, Šunjic, Spahic, Zukanovic; Višca, Pjanic, Cocalic, Lulic; Ibiševic, Džeko.

Subs: Vranješ for Mujdza (50 mins), Djuric for Visca (73 mins), Hajrovic for Lulic (88 mins)

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany).