Resilient Ciaran Clark turns his focus to Belgian challenge

Of all the Irish people – players and supporters – in the Stade de France on Monday night, nobody went through the extreme range of emotions experienced by Ciaran Clark. While the supporters made their way out to the stadium on the thronged metro lines, the Aston Villa man was somewhere deep in the stadium learning that he had made the first eleven.

“We weren’t sure of the team until just before the game,” Clark said after Thursday morning’s training session under thundery skies in Versailles.

“Any one of the lads could have played to be honest. At training everyone has done well. So I was really pleased, yeah.

“I think everyone prepares as if they are going to play. That’s how the manager wants it: he wants everyone to be prepared as if they are going to start. So in everyone’s head they get ready for the game and if they get a chance to play it is a real bonus.”

No time

He spent the first hour of Monday night’s match keeping company with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, shepherding him into anonymity and working in tandem with

Glenn Whelan

to make sure the big Swede had no time on the ball. Then, out of the blue, Sweden’s goal happened, with Ibrahimovic’s end-line cross skating off Clark’s head and into the Irish goal.

There was a split second delay before the Swedish fans erupted in delight because nobody could instantly process what they had seen. It could have been a crushing moment for the Aston Villa man, who is 26-years-old but still a novice in the international game.

Clark's family, from Donegal and Leitrim, were in the stadium. His friends were there. One of the unacknowledged qualities of international tournaments is that they transcend the demands of professionalism. Players talk about these weeks in terms of what they are: the culmination of boyhood daydreams. Scoring an own goal for Ireland in the first game of the European championships is such an acutely tough prospect that you can be certain it never crossed Clark's mind until the very second that it happened.

“It is one of those things,” he admitted. “When the ball comes in the box as a defender, any defender will say you have to get your body in there, have to try and get it away and unfortunately for us it’s gone into the bottom corner which is obviously devastating. But we have to move on.”

In the minutes after that goal, all eyes were drawn to Clark to see if the goal had shaken him. He did look a bit careworn as he jogged back for the restart but after that there was no discernible difference: he challenged every ball and he kept communicating. He looked in command. It was a brave mental recovery and it was only later that night, back in the team hotel in Versailles, that he permitted himself to revisit the incident. Some of the others players ribbed him about it – which was preferable to everyone pretending it didn’t happen. “There were a couple of little comments,” he said.

“After the game there wasn’t much sleeping. It’s ticking over in your head and that. But the next morning:it’s gone, there’s nothing you can do. What can someone say when it comes off you and it goes in like that? It’s gone now and we know that.”

If Clark was in any way traumatised by the experience, there is no way he would have been presented for media duties yesterday. His everyday demeanour – laid back and polite – couldn't be more different from his sharply combative style as a central defender and already, he has turned his focus to the Belgium challenge.

“They’ve got a number of players who can play. They have a top class squad and we know that but we have to concentrate on our own performance and try and match it to Sweden. “Obviously Hazard, Lukaku, Benteke...they have top class players. But we have quality players ourselves. We need to be wary but focus on our own performance as well.”

New owner

Among those who have wished Clark luck is the new Villa manager Roberto Di Matteo. Clark laughed when it was put to him that this would be the 44th manager he would play under during his years at the Birmingham club.

“I think it is eight or nine years there and I seem to have seen off a lot of managers. I’ll concentrate on tournament now but afterwards....there is a new owner there now so we can see what happens. I spoke to the new gaffer. Had a brief conversation on the phone and he has just wished me luck. I m fully concentrated on the Euros and I don’t know what will happen at club level. ”

Clark seems to have nailed down a starting place in O’Neill’s eyes. If he starts against Belgium, Di Matteo will have a chance to study his form against some of the top forwards in the Premier League.

And he couldn’t but be impressed by the defender’s reaction to Monday’s own goal.

Yesterday, when Clark said his family had been in the Stade de France, one of the media present couldn’t resist.

“Least they got to see you score.”

Clark threw his head back and laughed. He’ll be fine.