Manager Martin O’Neill admitted Walters’ fitness “is a concern” following Monday’s 1-1 draw, where Wes Hoolahan’s opener for the Irish was cancelled out by a Ciaran Clark own goal. But that miss didn’t seem to matter as Ireland were to get their dues just minutes into the second half, when the excellent Wes Hoolahan scored a beautifully controlled half-volley past Ikaason.
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Ibrahimovic was well shackled by a diligent Irish defence for the most part but surged beyond John O’Shea in the 71st minute and smashed the ball across goal for the unfortunate Ciaran Clark to turn into his own net.
Italy, who began their campaign with a 2-0 win over Belgium to top Group E, face Ireland in their final group stage match.
“They are very, very tough games, but while we have desire and a never-say-die attitude, I thought our players looked accomplished”, he said.
So awesome, in fact, that they can even get away with the madness you can see in the clip above: the borderline kidnapping of a Hungarian TV reporter, live on air.
“I told the others that he was a player we had to watch out for, and he showed it”.
On the sweet strike with his weaker right foot, Hoolahan added: “Seamus did brilliantly to beat his man and it was great to score”.
Ireland were in total control of the first half, creating a number of opportunities – one of which rattled the crossbar from 30-yards out – and giving the Swedish forwards no chance to do the same.
“We were fantastic I don’t know how we didn’t come in three goals in front”. “We had the game completely under control and that’s the most important thing”.
“I was trying to run and jump and get through it to see if it settled down, but it didn’t really”, said Walters. “Our attacking play wasn’t good”.
Belgium enjoyed most of the possession in the early stages but struggled to get past Italy’s experienced three-man backline of Juventus defenders Giorgio Chiellini, Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli.
The worry for Sweden is that it was Ireland doing this to their one world-class player rather than Italy or Belgium, while the worry for Ireland was how they lost the initiative and then almost lost the game.
Despite Hoolahan’s advancing years, Brady has no doubt he will be ready to take on a Belgium side smarting from defeat to Italy when the sides meet in Bordeaux on Saturday.
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And while he admittedly exhausted towards the end of yesterday’s tense draw, the Derby star did more than enough over 90 minutes to show that such worries about his viability as a starter were misguided.
