Tonights game, although it drew some positives, was the worst friendly international seen in years to be honest.
Caretaker boss,'Don Givens', was anxious to get a result from this encounter with Greece and he got it but the football was simply dreadful. Despite the Irish teasm dominating the first 35 minutes, we were on the offensive from the start.
Within two minutes of the kick-off, Glen Crowe gave a hint of the form Bohemians fans have been watching for the last few seasons and worked a neat one-two with Lee Carsley but was halted in his tracks by a ridiculous free-kick award by Italian referee Alfredo Trentalange.
Crowe was clean through on goal but the referee blew for a late tackle on Carsley. A few minutes later Dabizas swung a leg at a corner and Gary Doherty did well to block in a scrum of players. Then Crowe almost scored with a volley well gathered by Greek ‘keeper Nikopolidis. In the sixth minute, Shay Given almost put the ball into his own net, scuffing an attempted clearance from John O’Shea.
Goalmouth action came thick and fast and a wonderful cross-field pass from Stephen McPhail found the head of Gary Doherty on the right edge of the Greek penalty area.
Doherty sent a header back into the area where Carsley had a thrash but missed and the ball dropped for Crowe who swiveled and sent a shot just past the right upright. A flat spell followed with little of interest at either end and a dogged battle in midfield, edged marginally by the Greeks who finished the half the stronger.
HALF TIME Greece 0-0 Republic of Ireland
We needed to make several changes to get a result, but with little cover on the bench after the '11 WITHDRAWLS', this was not exactly on the agenda.
Otto Rehhagel made no fewer than seven substitutions at half-time while Givens chose to leave his team untouched. Two more followed on the hour but a total of nine changes made little difference to the pattern of the game – turgid and disjointed with little to lift the gloom.
The first seirous action of the second-half arrived just after the hour when a long punt forward for Papadopoulos gave the Olympiakos striker the chance to bear down on Given who just managed to gather possession after a poor touch by his opponent. After 70 minutes, Zagorakis tried his luck from 25 yards but sent his shot skimming over the ground and wide of the left upright.
Greece were in complete control of the game but failed miserably to do anything more than cause the odd scare I n Given’s goalmouth while Crowe and Doherty were isolated and starved of supply at the other end.
Givens finally chose to shake things up but sending Rory Delap in for Crowe was hardly the spark the game needed with five minutes to go and in the end, the temporary Irish boss was happy to hold onto a draw.
Teams
GREECE (Probable): Nikopolidis (Panathinaikos); Fyssas (Panathinaikos), Dabizas (Newcastle United), Kyrgiakos (Panathinaikos), Seitaridis (Panathiaikos); Giannakopoulos (Olympiakos), Tsartas (AEK), Zagorakis (AEK), Karagounis (Panthinaikos); Haristeas (Werder Bremmen), Nikolaidis (AEK).
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Newcastle); Finnan (Fulham), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Shea (Manchester United), Dunne (Manchester City); Healy (Celtic), Carsley (Everton), Holland (Ipswich), McPhail (Leeds United); Crowe (Bohemians) (Delap 86), Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur).
Referee: Alfredo Trentalange (Italy)
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