LUCK

Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own action.

The island of Ireland is synonymous with luck. The luck of the Irish, pots of gold, shamrocks and everything of the sort. Luck is that missing piece of a puzzle that falls into place, at the right time and the stars align for that one moment of magic.

You could argue that the Republic of Ireland have rode their luck all the way through this Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, but that would amount to a backhanded slap to the face of Martin O’Neill and his squad. It is not down to luck that Ireland sit level on points with second-place Poland, one point behind Germany and with the chance to win the group on Sunday. It is due to a never-say-die attitude, a willingness to fight to the bitter end and the mental strength and capacity to endure and perform.

Sunday, September 7, 2014 – Tbilisi Turnaround

The opening game of Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign began away to Georgia in Tbilisi. Ireland were deadlocked at 1-1 after Aiden McGeady had opened the scoring on 24 minutes, but Genk midfielder, Tornike Okriashvili, equalised for the Georgians a little over ten minutes later and Ireland looked to be heading for a disastrous draw. As the clock ticked towards 89 minutes, cue Aiden McGeady, the mercurial midfielder’s double drag back and curling effort rattled into the back of the Georgian net, securing Ireland a crucial 2-1 win.

You probably have to go back as far as 2012 to recall such a late Irish winner, when in similar circumstances Ireland escaped embarrassment in Kazakhstan with an 89 minute Robbie Keane penalty and a 90 minute Kevin Doyle winner, during qualification for Brazil 2014. Not quite as dramatic, but McGeady’s late goal in Tbilisi was the catalyst for Ireland’s desire to play till the very last kick of the game throughout this qualifying campaign.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 – O’Shea’s Shock and Awe

After a 7-0 rout against Gibraltar, Ireland headed to Gelsenkirchen to face a German team who had lost their previous game 2-0 away to neighbours Poland. Germany were wounded, Ireland were expecting to feel their wrath, and so they did from the very off. An Erik Durm rocket, five minutes in, rattled off David Forde’s crossbar. Germany dominated possession and laid siege to the Irish goal for 80 minutes of the game.

O’Neill experimented by putting McGeady in a No.10 role behind Keane, but the experiment backfired as McGeady floundered. Toni Kroos finally put the hosts 1-0 up on 71 minutes after Joachim Loew’s men uncharacteristically missed a raft of chances.

O’Neill’s experiment clearly had not worked and it was time to tinker again. Jeff Hendrick, Darron Gibson and Wes Hoolahan all entered the fray and Ireland grabbed a foothold as Germany failed to further their lead. Hoolahan’s quality began to tell and as we entered the fourth minute of injury time, the Norwich midfielder launched what looked like an over hit cross into the box. Jeff Hendrick’s contorted body managed to knock the ball back across goal for John O’Shea and on his 100th cap for his country pipped Matts Hummels to the punch and diverted the ball home.

Germany in stunned silence, Ireland in raucous euphoria.

Sunday, March 29, 2015 – Late Long Leveller

After a disappointing 1-0 loss away to Scotland at Celtic Park, which had effectively wiped the memory of Gelsenkirchen, the pressure was on O’Neill and his men to get a positive result at home to Poland. Inside the Aviva Stadium the Polish fans made for an electric atmosphere. Seconds prior to kick-off, Polish fans in a coordinated move, lit flares that dotted around the stadium. Those in attendance could have been forgiven for thinking they were in the San Siro, not the Aviva.

This encounter was the proverbial game of two-halves. Ireland put in a subpar first-half performance and Poland capitalised. Robbie Brady making his second ever start at left-back was caught in possession just outside the box and Slamwoir Peszko punished the Hull winger as he slammed the ball low and hard past Shay Given.

The second-half saw a revitalised Ireland dominate proceedings, showing possibly their best passing display of the qualifying campaign by constantly shifting the Polish defence from side-to-side and poking and prodding for gaps. In the end it was a Shane Long effort on 91 minutes that rescued the Irish, with Hoolahan proving instrumental by putting the ball into the path of Long from a Brady corner. Long gathered and fired home from close range.

Another draw had felt like an ecstasy laden win.

It was now clear that Ireland had the mental capacity to fight until their legs gave-out or the referee blew for the final whistle. It lead to journalists in the post-match press conference to explicitly query Martin O’Neill about his team’s late goalscoring capability

“The one thing you could never say against this side – they don’t lack spirit anyway,” O’Neill said.

“We’ve kept going right to the end and it was a late goal in Georgia, late goal against Germany and another one here.”.

Monday, 7 September, 2015 – Hendrick moves like Jagger

By the time this game had rolled around Ireland had beaten the not so rock solid Gibraltarians 4-0 and in a massive turn of fate, Scotland had failed to beat Georgia. Leaving the door firmly open for Ireland to march toward that third-place spot, a position that had looked lost after having only garnered 1 point from a possible 6 against the Scots.

In typical Irish fashion we were made to bite our nails. A lacklustre 70 minutes of football burst into life as Jeff Hendrick took on two Georgian defenders on the left flank, he nutmegged one and danced into the penalty box. There the midfielder was met by a third onrushing defender to which he gave a show-and-go and squared for Jon Walters, who bundled the ball home.

In this instance Ireland had capitalised on Scotland’s catastrophic mistake of losing to Georgia and Derby County’s Hendrick dragged Ireland into third place kicking and screaming. So many times in the past Ireland had failed to see out a win which would put them in touching distance of the promised land, squandering a 2-1 lead to Austria in 2013 springs to mind, but this time they ensured victory.

And now to the present.

There was no luck involved in the heroics of last night’s defeat of the reigning World Champions. Gritty determinedness coupled with a desire to fight to the bloody end are what earned Ireland a historic victory over Germany in Group D and with that win still fresh in the mind and a spring in the nation’s step, attention turns to Poland on Sunday.

Victory in Warsaw on Sunday will guarantee automatic qualification to Euro 2016 in France. A 2-2 draw or higher will also ensure automatic qualification. A loss ensures a play-off place and one final battle for a plane ticket to France.

Audere-est-Facere – To Do is to Dare.