With Conor Hogan
Wrap up: Tonight’s wasn’t a great match to watch. Andorra are a terrible team, but you wouldn’t expect any better from a country with a population of only 80,000. You would have hoped for more goals from Ireland, but they were limited to a mere three thanks a combination of profligacy, time-wasting, stout defending and an appalling refereeing decision.
Ireland should’ve had a stone-wall penalty when Doyle was wrestled to the ground, but in the end it is no use crying over spilled milk. Goal difference doesn’t overly matter now, as positions will be decided through head-to-head. Therefore a win is a win, and that’s all that matters. Ireland will need to up their performance for their next match, though.
Thanks very much for joining us today.
Be sure to join us again for our future match trackers.
2145:
In some latest scores, Scotland are still drawing 1-1 at home to Liechtenstein, and France are 2-0 up against both Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In other results tonight Turkey have beaten Belgium 3-2, Serbia have drawn 1-1 with Slovenia, Italy have defeated Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands 5-0, Holland have beaten Finland 2-1, Croatia have drawn 0-0 with Greece, Montenegro have shocked Bulgaria 1-0, England have beaten Switzerland 3-1, and Lithuania have won 1-0 away to the Czech Republic.
Full time
Kelly plays the ball into Keogh. His cross is very poor, and Argos’ Josep Anton Gomez gathers it very easily.
We are into injury time now. It’s been a bit of a disappointing performance.
Kilbane plays a ball to McGeady, who goes past two Andorrans. The Spartak Moscow man plays a poor enough ball to Andy Keogh. The Andorrans have a lot of bodies back and manage to clear. Ronnie Whelan has named Doyle as Man of the Match. Nobody in the world could complain.
Portugal look in serious trouble. After drawing their first game at home to Cyprus 4-4, the Iberians have lost to Norway.
McGeady plays a great cross into the box. Kilbane gets his head on it. Unlike the first half, his powerful header goes just over.
The final change for Ireland. Man of the match Kevin Doyle is replaced by Andy Keogh. Ireland should have had at least three more goals so far, through no fault of Doyle, who is good enough to play for a Champions League side.
Kenny Miller has spared Scotland’s blushes slightly. The Rangers man has equalised. A draw will still be a disaster, however.
Kevin Doyle plays a half-shot-half-cross into the box, but it neither goes on target, nor does any Irish player get a foot onto it.
McGeady plays a ball into the box, but there is nobody there and Lima clears. Are we really not committing bodies forward against Andorra? Shaqiri has pulled one back for the Swiss against England.
Substitution for Ireland. Fulham’s Stephen Kelly comes on for the injured John O’Shea. The Manchester United man has ice on his thigh.
Josep Ayala is replaced by Xavi Andorra who plays as a striker for FC Andorra from Andorra. This is his 19th cap for Andorra. If only Stephen Ireland was playing. It would probably be the first time in history that two international teams play each other while represented by a player who has the same name as the country.
Adam Johnson has doubled England’s lead against ten man Switzerland. Brilliantly taken, apparently.
Lawrence plays the ball into Kevin Doyle who is rugby tackled to the ground. Incredibly Mr. Trattou doesn’t give a penalty.
Incredible scoreline coming out of Hampden Park. Liechtenstein have taken the lead just after half time against Scotland. St Gallen’s Super Mario Frick is the scorer. If it ends like this it might well be the most embarrassing result in the history of international football.
Darron Gibson, who was complaining earlier about not starting, comes on for Glenn Whelan. He’s had 23 minutes of football this season.
Moreno gets booked for time wasting, and is replaced by Manolo Jimenez who plays for Futbol Club Santa Coloma in the Andorran Primero Division. They are the Andorran champions, so he must be good.
“God he really enjoyed that goal! Fair play Robbie,” say Tomas from Carlow. Didn’t you see the start of the game, Tomas? There will be no fair play tonight. Delighted for Keane though.
McGeady plays a great ball into Robbie Keane who chips it over Argos’ Josep Anton Gomez. Great finish.
Goal Ireland
RTE have gotten the score in the Macedonia v Armenia game wrong. The have the result as 2-1 to Macedonia, though it finished 2-2. Manchurian equalised.
“Once again the posh seats are empty. Bet they’ll be crammed for Michael Buble. Class stadium, though,” says Cathal, Block 107, row M, seat 18.
Whelan goes down in the box but referee Leontios Trattou tells the Stoke man to “get up ya big jessie” which sounds strange in his Cypriot accent.
No changes at half time. Today was only the 19th time in their competitive history that Andorra have scored. Don’t worry about them having a comeback. They’ve only scored two once in a competitive fixture.
“Whelan and Green are at their best when the other team have the ball,” adds John Giles, “You’d like to see a bit more creativity out there.”
“Our midfield players aren’t getting the ball, we are set up to defend. We are not set up to take out little teams,” says Eamon Dunphy.
Half time
Andorra’s goal comes completely out of the blue. The ball bounces in front of Christian Martinez, who has a strike from outside the box. It is hit very well and goes straight in the top corner leaving Given with little chance to save.
Goal Andorra
Paul Green has a go, himself, from just outside the box and it goes just over. Lawrence has a shot from distance too, and it goes a bit further over. Nobody closes Ireland down from these long range attempts. Hopefully they bring Gibson on in the second.
Ireland’s best player, Kevin Doyle, picks the ball up from 25 yards and hits an astonishing swerving shot into the top corner. Amazing goal.
Goal Ireland
Christian Martinez plays the ball into nobody, and Given easily gathers it. 1-0 is a disappointing score-line for Ireland considering how much they’ve dominated.
Liam Lawrence pulls the free kick back to Glenn Whelan, who has a shot from outside the box. It’s blocked and cleared.
Lima makes an awful challenge on Doyle, but the ref leaves him off the booking. Lima isn’t so lucky a couple of minutes later. He handballs and the ref gets his little yellow card out.
Lawrence is played in, and has a great chance, but puts the ball into the side-netting in his attempt. I thought it had gone in. Poor miss.
“Whelan and Green will be shown up against the top sides in our group,” says Peter from Sligo. The jury is out on Green, but nobody can deny that Whelan does a job for Ireland since Trapattoni picked him, especially against the good teams. I’d definitely have played Gibson today, though, for his long distance shooting alone.
Ronnie Whelan notes that the Andorrans go down easy and then stay down. It’s clearly a tactic to waste time and keep the score down.
Italy are currently leading 1-0 against Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands. Gilardino is the scorer.
Marc Pujol of Balaguer does a bit of play-acting in an attempt to get Paul Green booked. It is proof that just because you play in the Spanish 7th division doesn’t mean you can’t be a cheating so and so.
Doyle beats three Andorrans and lays it off to Liam Lawrence. The Stoke/Portsmouth man’s attempts to play the ball back to Doyle is intercepted, however. As you would expect, Ireland have had 74% of the ball.
Moreno has a shot from a long way out that Shay Given cannot gather well in slippery conditions and Andorra win a corner. Ireland deal with the corner easily, however.
Liam Lawrence plays a beauty of corner into the box, which Kevin Kilbane gratefully heads home. It’s Kilbane’s third goal against Andorra in three matches.
Goal Ireland
Aiden McGeady, who is destroying Andorra plays a ball into Keane who has a shot that deflects wide and goes for a corner.
Rooney ends a run of 967 minutes without a goal at international level. He seems to be playing much better now the revelations about his private life aren’t hanging over his head.
Paul Green passes to Aiden McGeady who has a stinging shot that goes just wide. England are current leading the Swiss in Basle 1-0 thanks to a goal from Wayne Rooney.
John O’Shea plays a through ball into Robbie Keane, who has a poor shot that Josep Anton Gomez spills and gathers at the second attempt. Gomez works in Argos in Chesterfield. Will he have a catalogue of errors tonight?
The entire population of Andorra, 80,000, can fit into Croke Park. Pujol almost wins a corner for them, but not quite. Goal kick.
Ireland are doing all the attacking as you would expect. McGeady eats Andorrans for breakfast. With a runny egg obviously. He loves those runny eggs.
Game kicks off. My prediction is either three or four nil to Ireland. I’ll split the difference and predict three and a half nil.
Liam Lawrence isn’t singing the anthem, because he’s English. Richard Dunne doesn’t sing it either because he’s shy like Jane Horrocks in Little Voice.
The microphones didn’t work and Fifa have abandoned the fair play speeches. No fair play tonight then, I reckon.
Kevin Kilbane is lining up for his 62nd consecutive match for Ireland tonight, George Hamilton informs us. The Hull man has played every competitive match for Ireland since 1999, amazing for somebody who could be kindly referred to as a journyman.
The Diary of Horace Wimp by ELO was playing in the Aviva Stadium, cleary in honour of Mike Edwards who was killed by a bale of hay yesterday.
Ildefons Lima is Andorra’s best player, by virtue of the fact that he has played professional football throughout his career for clubs in Serie B and the Spanish Second Division. He is currently playing in the Swiss Super League for AC Bellinzona.
Andorra team:
Josep Anton Gomez, Bernaus, Christian Martinez, Lima, Pujol, Escura, Sebastia Gomez, Ayala, Vieira, Moreno, Silva.
Subs: Pol, Rubio, Sonejee, Jimenez, Andorra, Mejias, Lorenzo.
Household names one and all.
“If you are to ever get your confidence back, tonight be may be the night against these opponents,” Dunphy says of Aiden McGeady.
Andorra have only managed one competitive victory in their history, against fellow Group B team Macedonia in 2004 in the qualifiers for Germany 06. Interestingly, they managed four points against Macedonia in that campaign, as they also drew 0-0 with them in Skopje.
The tiny principality in the Pyrenees may not have the worst national team in Europe – but they are definitely in the bottom two, as the only other team to finish pointless in the World Cup qualifiers were San Marino. To read more about Andorra, and all of Ireland’s other group B opponents click here.
In today’s other match in our group Slovakia beat top seeds Russia in Moscow thanks to a goal from Fenerbache’s Miroslav Stoch. I’m not sure if that’s a good result or a bad result for Ireland.
Ireland named the same team that won 1-0 away from Armenia last Friday, much to the chagrin of Manchester United’s Darron Gibson. He has said today that if Trapattoni wants him to move away from Manchester United, he’s having a laugh. To read more on this story click here.
1830:
Irish team:
Shay Given, John O’Shea, Sean Saint Ledger, Richard Dunne, Kevin Kilbane, Liam Lawrence, Glenn Whelan, Paul Green, Aiden McGeady, Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle.
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