“This group will have turns and twists, everything you can name between now and qualification time”.
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But they kept going and although it was not pretty at times, they got there in the end.
Wales, Georgia, and Austria have also been drawn to the qualifying Group D. In the first round played on September 5, Georgia lost to Austria (1-2), while Wales beat Moldova (4-0).
While the Republic may no longer be able to call upon Robbie Keane, they do still have threats and Ivanovic has seen enough of the likes of Shane Long and Jonathan Walters in the Premier League to know he and his team-mates will have their hands full at the Crvena Zvezda Stadium.
The shirt has been worn for the last 19 years by Ireland’s record goalscorer Robbie Keane who retired from worldwide football after last week’s friendly against Oman.
“Ireland is an opponent that needs to be respected, that demands respect, and what I am especially impressed about is their level of continuity”.
But for all their share of the ball, the home side failed to create clear-cut chances with Mitrovic firing wastefully over from 20 yards until Kostic twice tested keeper Darren Randolph from distance, on the second occasion promoting a fine one-handed 23rd-minute save with a fizzing strike.
Among his highlights was the follow up to a free eight minutes before the break when Walters, again, almost turned his ball home but Rajkovic saved well and the Serbs broke, dangerously it seemed until the midfielder found an extra yard of pace to nip in front of Tadic then turn and get Ireland moving forward once more.
But had substitute Andrija Pavlovic not wasted a golden opportunity to make it 3-1, or had Darren Randolph and Seamus Coleman not combined to deny Branislav Ivanovic a last-gasp victor, they might have emerged empty-handed.
His headed clearance set off the chain of events that led to Jeff Hendrick’s third-minute opener, but was caught out positionally on several occasions, not least with four minutes to go when his failure to get back in the defensive line played Ivanovic onside and the Chelsea defender should have won it for Serbia. “And in a month’s time, if they are fit for global matches, having played some club games, I think that maybe could be of benefit to us”.
The Irish were not going to back down and Newcastle striker Murphy broke free of his marker to power a header past the goalkeeper.
Dunphy added that Wes Hoolahan has been “abused” in some ways by Martin O’Neill, indicating the manager was “reluctant to start him”, and explaining that the Norwich man should have featured.
O’Neill told Sky Sports 2: “You would have taken a point before the game started”. They were very strong, they have very good players and I thought we fought back magnificently from conceding the second goal and we absolutely deserved the point.
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“The great thing is that we got off to a good start in a hard away game”, O’Neill said.
