Sports journalists are seldom renowned for the accuracy of their pre-match predictions but credit to the staff at L’Equipe, they called this one.
“Don’t be surprised if the Blues, this Thursday evening, take turns trying their luck from afar,” read one of their match previews on Thursday, under the headline “Bazunu: far from imperial.”
“They are probably aware that the Irish goalkeeper, Gavin Bazunu (21), now has a reputation for being in difficulty when called upon to save long-distance shots . . . According to Opta, Bazunu is the goalkeeper in the English Second Division who has conceded the most goals this season from outside the area (3), only managing to stop 50% of the shots launched from this area.”
Actually it’s even worse than L’Equipe made out - it’s 50% of on-target shots from anywhere on the pitch that have been ending up in the back of Bazunu’s net this season. The Irish goalkeeper was recently passionately defended by his manager Russell Martin after supporters expressed doubts about his quality at a Southampton fan forum. But Bazunu’s consistently poor stats have made him a target.
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Bazunu’s save percentage of 54% was the worst of 113 goalkeepers who played regularly in the top five European leagues last season. It should be remembered that he is also the youngest goalkeeper to have played so many minutes at that level. Most goalkeepers don’t grow up in the limelight the way he has been doing. Nevertheless, the numbers have created the impression of weakness. And opponents such as France can hardly be expected to ignore a weakness.
Aurelien Tchouameni had demonstrated his hammer of a right foot when France knocked England out of the World Cup in Qatar, thumping his side’s first goal past Jordan Pickford from 25 yards. Here his first shot from range, inside the first 10 minutes, was blocked by defenders on the edge of the box.
In response he changed the approach, but not the idea. After 19 minutes, a France corner was headed by Nathan Collins to Kylian Mbappe on the edge of the box. Chiedozie Ogbene and Enda Stevens advanced tentatively on Mbappe, neither noticing the unobtrusive movement of Tchouameni, backwards, away from the box, like a rugby player stepping back into the pocket to hit a drop goal. Mbappe’s lay-off allowed Tchouameni to hit it first time - a beautiful strike that flew over the defenders and into the far corner.
The fact that only about 1% of efforts from out there actually end up in the net just makes the hit to Bazunu’s stats all the more painful - a frustration magnified by the knowledge that he really didn’t have any chance of saving that shot.
A few minutes later Kylian Mbappe drove what looked to be France’s second through an unconvincing attempt at a save by Bazunu, only for the goal to be ruled out for an earlier offside. The reason Bazunu is still playing ahead of Caoimhin Kelleher is that while Bazunu has been out there getting riddled, Kelleher has been sitting on Liverpool’s bench. If he wants to be the Ireland goalkeeper he has to become some club’s goalkeeper first. Mark Travers’ save percentage of 54.4% last season was hardly any better than Bazunu’s - but he is now playing regularly for Stoke and if he can sustain consistent performances he will surely come back into the picture.
Ireland are miles off the required quality. Chiedozie Ogbene was game, showing energy with his runs, but Ireland were never able to stitch together sustained moves in the French half. Idah was always likely to have a tough night in a lone striker role, but he couldn’t get the ball to stick in the way Ireland needed. On the one occasion when he was played through by Molumby, his hesitant control allowed the chasing defenders to catch up and he ended up turning away from goal, protecting the ball but losing the chance.
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Soon after that Kenny sent on Will Keane for Idah and he farcically lasted only 11 minutes on the pitch before becoming the sixth Irish forward to get injured during this international break.
It is hard to be critical of a team who are, quite simply, outclassed in every position. Ireland’s suffering was personified by Enda Stevens, whose sorry task it was to mark Ousmane Dembele. The Stoke man spent the first half getting tortured down Ireland’s left side, with Dembele seeming to be trying to come with ironic ways to go past him.
Stevens made way at half-time for James McClean, who these days plays for League Two’ Wrexham (as seen on television). McClean did at least manage to stop Dembele a couple of times, but he too ended up getting embarrassed when the PSG winger swished past him on the outside and cracked a shot off Bazunu’s near post.
Bazunu did at least produce a good second-half save from another Tchouameni shot from downtown, but by then Ireland had already conceded a second to Marcus Thuram, on as a sub for Olivier Giroud. It felt like it could have been worse than 2-0 if France hadn’t spent much of the second half amusing themselves. In the end, a humbling reminder of Ireland’s lowly standing in the world game.
