Republic of Ireland beat Macedonia 2-1 to go joint top in Group C: Euro 2012 qualifiers
Republic of Ireland beat Macedonia 2-1 in a Euro 2012 Group B qualifier at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. The latest win takes Republic of Ireland top of the group standings, level with Russia and Slovakia.
Giovanni Trapattoni included several English Premier League players in his starting line-up. Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation for the hosts.
On the other hand, Macedonian manager Mirsad Jonuz opted for a 4-5-1 formation with Inter Milan striker Goran Pandev starting as a lone forward.
The hosts could not have asked for a better start to the game, as they took the lead in the second minute. Kevin Doyle played a lovely ball to Spartak Moscow’s Aiden McGeady, who smashed a thunderous low drive into the bottom corner of the net, to make it
1-0 for the Boys in Green.
Minutes later, Pandev could have scored a wonderful solo goal, after he beat four men to enter the Irish box but Darren O’Dea made a superb sliding block to deny him the goal.
The hosts dominated the major chunk of possession and created some nice openings to double their lead. In the 10th minute, Doyle released a wonderful through ball to Keane but the West Ham United man’s powerful low drive was met by a finger tip
save from Edin Nuredinoski.
The hosts then suffered a huge blow when Kevin Doyle slipped to the turf and had to leave the field early with a knee injury. He was replaced by Shane Long.
Three minutes later, the Macedonian goalkeeper spilled a straight forward free kick from Manchester United midfielder Darren Gibson, and Keane smacked the loose ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 for the hosts. At that point the visitors were just
looking for damage limitation as they failed to create any chances in the opening half hour.
In the 33rd minute, Ivan Trickovski weaved past the defender and smacked a wonderful shot which beat the hosts’ goalkeeper but went inches wide of the post.
The visitors managed to pull a goal back on the stroke of half time. Trickovski cut inside beautifully past two defenders and slotted a clam finish past Keiren Westwood, to make it 2-1.
The visitors could have equalised immediately after the restart but Pandev smashed a shot just wide of the goal from Goran Popov’s lovely through ball.
Both teams created several opportunities in the second half but all in vain. Macedonia were playing at full throttle and an equaliser looked inevitable. Trickovski and Pandev came extremely close to leveling things but Westwood was up to the challenge.
The visitors failed to take their chances as they slumped to their third defeat of the competition.