Martin O’Neill praised the character of his Republic of Ireland players after Daryl Murphy’s late goal earned a 2-2 draw in Serbia. He then underlined his commitment to the Republic, though his new contract has yet to be signed nearly three months after an agreement was announced.
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Tellingly, O’Neill acknowledged his side’s pronounced defensive vulnerability in injury-time by introducing centre-back Ciaran Clark in place of Long and switching to a 5-4-1 formation to ensure a point.
“From our point of view we weren’t at our best by any means but I think in the first half we had a couple of opportunities which we should have made more from on the counter attack”. “I should have scored”, Novak told the Czech Television.
Jeff Hendrick fired Ireland into a third-minute lead, but Filip Kostic’s equaliser and Dusan Tadic’s penalty looked to have won the day until Murphy struck, like Hendrick, with the first goal of his senior global career.
“We took an early lead and defended strongly after that”.
“We have to move on now because we have got a lot of big games, but we didn’t want this to be a night where we looked back and thought we should have probably got something and come away with a 2-1 defeat”.
Jeff Hendrick: One of Ireland’s stars at the Euros, Burnley new £10m man finally broke his duck at global level, grabbing an early goal.
Opposite number Slavoljub Muslin was unable to call upon suspended duo Aleksandar Kolarov and Nemanja Matic, and the new head coach’s misfortune grew within three minutes of kick-off.
However, he failed to control the ball and the Irish were able to clear ― the Serbs exiting to the jeers of the supporters who had turned up. Minutes later, Kostic would pop up again, this time seemingly diving to win a penalty under pressure from Jonathan Walters. Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot.
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The 24-year-old Norwich midfielder, who has operated as an emergency full-back for his country at times, scored Ireland’s Euro 2016 victor against Italy which booked their place in the last 16, and then shocked hosts France with a nerveless early penalty. Serbia’s half-clearance may have fallen to Hendrick’s weaker left foot on the edge of the penalty box but there was sufficient power in his shot which Ivanovic couldn’t deal with. Randolph did well to block his effort and although the ball rebounded off an Irish defender, Coleman was on the line to clear.
