Estonia 0 Rep of Ireland 4:AFTER ALL the talk of having to avoid over-confidence ahead of this first encounter with Estonia, it is hard to imagine how Giovanni Trapattoni and his men could exaggerate their prospects of progressing to next summer's European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine now.
No side has ever bounced back from a trouncing like this in a two-leg play-off and Estonia are highly unlikely to become the first next Tuesday.
So, for once, the supporters at an-important Ireland home game will not have to endure the terrible sense of uncertainty their side always seems to generate when the stakes are really high – and quite a few, one imagines, will be sizing up their options prior to the draw for the finals on December 2nd in Kiev. The way the players saluted the fans who had travelled for last night’s game – among them Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien – suggested they believe, as their manager might put it, that the cat is in the sack.
The home support’s treatment of the Hungarian referee as he left the pitch made it pretty clear too that they felt their side had had more to contend with than just Ireland’s superiority.
Viktor Kassai played a major role in last night’s proceedings alright.
The match official, who was in charge of last May’s Champions League final at Wembley, as well as the World Cup semi-final between Spain and Germany, sent off two Estonians here, one in each half, for committing two bookable offences each and handed the Irish a penalty towards the end when Stephen Hunt was impeded by Ats Purje as he attempted to get around him down the left-hand side of the box.
Taken individually, none of the decisions actually looked all that controversial, but given the accumulation of them, it was not entirely surprising the locals felt put out by the end of a contest in which they had battled hard but ultimately lost out to goals by Keith Andrews, Jonathan Walters and a couple by Robbie Keane.
The Ireland captain had predicted on Thursday the hosts would sit back and try to hit Ireland on the counter-attack, but the locals seemed to have altogether different ideas.
Right from the off the Estonians seemed determined to pile forward, with both wingers, especially Dmitri Kruglov down the left, appearing to have the potential to threaten, while Konstantin Vassiljev floated menacingly just behind lone striker Jarmo Ahjupera.
Fortunately, Ahjupera didn’t look the most effective and, over the 55 minutes or so he was involved, he rarely caused Shay Given or his defenders much concern.
Around him, though, there was more than enough going on – in a game played, for the most part, at a frantic pace – to keep Richard Dunne and the rest of the back four on their toes.
Generally, they coped well, with Stephen Ward rising particularly well to the challenge of containing Tarmo Kink on Estonia’s right flank.
More than once he made well- judged interventions up the field to nip potential threats and just short of the half-hour he produced a brave and perfectly-timed challenge on the winger just as he looked to have slipped goal-side.
The net effect of the home side’s determination to take the game to Ireland, inevitably, was there was plenty of space for Trapattoni’s men to push into when they won possession and the result was an exciting, open, and high-tempo game in which it seemed either side could get an early upper hand.
Less than a quarter of an hour in it was Ireland who did, with Walters flicking the ball on for Keane, who fed Aiden McGeady out on the left. The midfielder set up Andrews to head home from six yards out.
Just above the goal a banner read “Estonia 4 Northern Ireland 1” with the word “Northern” crossed out and the owner might have viewed his prediction as half way to being realised, but in truth it seemed far more likely, even at that stage, that the Irish would push on and take control of things – rather than the hosts would pick themselves up and score the goals required to make a match of the return leg.
An uphill task became a mountain to climb towards the end of the first half when Andrei Stepanov, a surprise selection by Tarmo Ruutli to start ahead of Taavi Rahn, was played into trouble by Aleksandr Dimitriyev, who was put under pressure by McGeady. Stepanov took down Keane to pick up his second yellow card of the game.
Until the break Ruutli stuck to his guns, playing three at the back and allowing Kruglov to continue making his runs down the left in the hope of grabbing an equaliser before things settled down, but Ireland held up well and when the game restarted after the break, the Estonians had reorganised, with the winger at left back and a good deal of the attacking edge gone.
Ahjupera was replaced by the lively looking Vladimir Voskoboinkov, who had a half decent effort on goal with virtually his first touch of the game, but, steadily, the balance shifted towards Ireland, with Andrews impressive in the centre, where he and Glenn Whelan got increasingly on top of things.
The domination really started to tell now and midway through the second half Walters, one of the very best Ireland performers on the night, made it two with a close range header that Ragnar Klavan failed to keep out after McGeady’s shot had been parried and Keane picked up on the loose ball to cross. By then, it looked like Trapattoni’s side might score almost every time they broke forward.
Five minutes later Keane got his first of the night when a low, driven Andrews free was played into the path of the Ireland skipper by the goalkeeper, who saved with a trailing foot.
He tapped that one gratefully and, after Raio Piiroja picked up his second yellow for a handball with a quarter of an hour to play, looked just as relaxed as he stroked his penalty low to Sergei Pareiko’s left to complete the victory in the dying minutes.
It was number 53 in an international career that, despite the occasional suggestion of impending retirement, now looks certain to go on until at least the summer of next year when Ireland, barring a miracle, will be at a European Championship for the first time in just short of a quarter of a century.
