Ireland defender Richard Dunne was as hard-hitting as one of his tackles as he summed up the 3-2 defeat to Russia that leaves Group B wide open ahead of the next round of games on Tuesday.
Dunne received the sponsor’s man of the match award for his effort, which was etched all over his face following a troubling night for Giovanni Trapattoni’s side at the Aviva Stadium.
Despite a penalty from Robbie Keane and a goal from substitute Shane Long that brought Ireland back to 3-2 down, the big Aston Villa defender admitted they didn’t deserve anything from the game.
“Over the whole game we didn’t deserve it, we could have been four or five down before we started playing,” admitted Dunne, who could not put his finger on why the side were so flat in the opening half.
“We couldn’t do anything in the first half and even in the second half we couldn’t close them down. They passed the ball very really well. It wasn’t until we started knocking it long and winning second balls that we started getting chances, but we didn’t deserve the draw overall,” he added.
Dunne also conceded that the long-ball approach failed on the night and that the inability of the side to adapt to a very skilful Russian line-up was key
“We seemed to have one game-plan and that was go long and when that didn’t work we were left wide open. They’ve got very skilful players and when they broke they broke quickly and it was difficult for us to defend against,” added Dunne, before returning to that night in Paris for an example.
“We proved when we played France that we can pass the ball and play football and it’s about being brave enough and we weren’t brave enough tonight.
“For some reason we don’t feel comfortable doing it (passing the ball), we have to have confidence, we have to be braver when we have the ball. It’s alright going long with it, it’s probably the easy way out for players. We’ve got to try and get our foot on the ball and try and pass it and create chances.
“If we keep doing that, we keep getting left open and the defence gets knackered running up and back and we’re left wide open all the time. We’ve got to get control of the ball and try and control games a bit more rather that kick it long all the time.”