Soccer:Giovanni Trapattoni attempted to find crumbs of comfort in defeat this morning, but admitted his side were completely outclassed by Russia in their Euro 2012 Group B qualifier at Lansdowne Road.
Russia were cruising towards a 3-0 win last night before a late and passionate fightback from Ireland yielded two goals in the last 20 minutes. The scores from Robbie Keane and Shane Long may yet prove crucial but could not mask the deficiencies of the Irish performance.
Aleksandr Kerzhakov struck first for Russia and then dummied a cross to allow Alan Dzagoev double the lead for a two-goal advantage at halftime. When Roman Shirokov's shot deflected off Richard Dunne and past shay Given soon after the restart, the game was up for the homeside.
“For their first goal one of their players was offside, I’ve reviewed it many times and one of their players was behind our wall,” said the manager at the Hilton’s Airport Hotel today. “But that’s not enough because we were inferior."
“We recovered our fight late in the game and scored two important goals, two goals which are important because they can count for qualification."
Rather than reflecting on the game, Trapattoni is now keen to start afresh. His side are level on points with both Russia and Slovakia ahead of the trip Zilina to face the latter on Tuesday.
“We have to look forward now as if Slovakia is our first game,” he said before hinting at changes. “We didn’t play as well as we can, two or three players didn’t play to their potential.
“Of course, we will look for one or two fresh players and one or two changes are possible.
The manager has no new injury worries, though striker Kevin Doyle “is a little bit sore”, and is not expected to call anyone else up before the squad departs on Monday morning.
The manager once again lamented the perceived lack options he has in terms of personnel, when dismissing the notion of a formation change.
“I don’t think I could consider playing with just one striker. Other teams can do it because they have more players to choose from in midfield.”