Ireland managed to hold on to the narrow 1-0 advantage until the half-time whistle as Serbia were booed off.
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Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has played down a link to the vacant Hull position, and praised his side for their performance during a 2-2 draw with Serbia on Monday.
James McClean past up a golden opportunity when he missed the target with a free header, but substitute Murphy was not so wasteful when he powered home from Brady’s corner to snatch a point.
“Naturally, we got off to a fantastic start early on in the game, I suppose before all the players from Serbia had touched the ball”, O’Neill said.
Courage and effort will only take you so far and Ireland are in danger of missing out on Russian Federation 2018 unless they learn how to keep a hold of the ball. They came back and got a point.
The crumbs of comfort for O’Neill came again from his defence, which kept a fifth clean sheet in eight, but, following the joyous scenes which greeted them upon their return from France, this was a stark reality check.
But Daryl Murphy’s headed goal 10 minutes from time earned Ireland a potentially vital point from a tricky encounter.
This was Karel Jarolim’s first competitive match in charge of the Czech Republic, while a number of retirements, including Petr Cech’s, made this a very different team to the one that played at the Euros. He booked two of our players early on and if he’s going to book one of us down one side, he has to book their player down the other side.
“The great thing is that we got off to a good start in a hard away game”. I thought we thwarted them well.
Fellow pundit Didi Hamann, however, was less critical, saying that Serbia is “never an easy place to go”, and adding: “I can’t see another team (in the group) winning there”.
“You have to look at our team”, O’Neill stressed.
“We’ve got a point and we’re off the mark”.
Barring the occasional mad dash upfield, the game was now being played in the visitors’ box, and Jonny Evans was required to make a fine block at Kadlec’s feet before Krejci failed to nod on target.
He has been a near ever-present in the Ireland squad since 1998, with the likes of Shane Long, Jon Walters and Newcastle new-boy Daryl Murphy left to lead the forward line.
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“This match is very, very important to start well, but it is not crucial”. I’m delighted with them.
