Two first-half goals from Graham Barrett were enough to provide Ireland with their expected win over Liechtenstein at the Tedesco Stadium in Malta yesterday. Competent rather than spectacular was the consensus on the Irish performance, however, as a physically big and well-organised Liechtenstein frustrated Ireland who never really clicked into full flow.
"The pitch made it very difficult for us to get the ball down and move it around," said manager Brian Kerr. "Their goalkeeper was very good and with them playing so far back it was always going to be hard to break them down. The extent of their ambition was to keep the score down and I'm sure they are very satisfied with the end result.
"We scored two goals, but didn't quite have the momentum in the second half to take it on as we should and I think we've kept a little bit for Wednesday's match with Malta," said Kerr. It looked as if it had all gradually fallen into place for Ireland after a sluggish start when the first goal arrived after 25 minutes.
Central defender John O'Shea started it all with a good ball up the left to Ben Burgess and the big Blackburn Rovers striker, making his competitive debut, turned delightfully inside the area to cross for Barrett to head home.
The Arsenal striker might have scored again within three minutes. Once more some surprising subtlety from Burgess set him up, but Peter Jehle, who has played seven times for the Liechtenstein senior team, made a terrific save to push Barrett's shot round a post.
Barrett netted his second goal on 38 minutes to effectively kill off the game. The bumpy pitch made its contribution as Jehle slipped trying to clear a back pass and Barrett, showing great awareness, pounced to knock the ball past him and tap it into an unguarded net.
In a disappointing second half, Barrett came very close to his hat-trick on 66 minutes when played through on goal by Gary Dempsey. But Jehle did very well to save with his feet.
A win is a win as they say, with perhaps the other main plus for Ireland being the performance in central midfield of Thomas Butler, who was excellent throughout in a holding role in front of the back four. That leaves Kerr with a welcome selection headache for tomorrow's game with Malta when Liam Miller is available again following suspension.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Murphy (Tranmere Rovers); D Byrne (St Patrick's Athletic), O'Shea (Manchester United), Goodwin (Celtic), Foy (Nottingham Forest); McGill (Sunderland), Butler (Sunderland), Dempsey (Everton), S Byrne (West Ham); Burgess (Blackburn Rovers), Barrett (Arsenal). Subs: Douglas (Blackburn Rovers) for D Byrne (half-time), Forsyth (Blackburn Rovers) for McGill (69 mins).
LIECHTENSTEIN: Jehle; Sele, Eberle, M Buchel, Wolfinger, Nigg; D'Elia, Rheinberger, Gerster, M Beck; R Buckel. Subs: Burgmeier for Rheinberger (62 mins).
Referee: M Tura (San Marino).
