Frustration.
Ireland suffered a crushing 5-1 loss to Denmark in Tuesday night’s World Cup play-off qualifier clash. Hopes were high going into the game, on the back of Friday’s draw away from home, but Martin O’Neill’s men were absolutely steamrolled in the Aviva in the decider.
They got the dream start through an early Shane Duffy header, but it was all downhill from there, starting off with a Cyrus Christie own goal, an inability to pass the ball and a hattrick from Christian Eriksen.
And then, to top it all off, Nicklas Bendtner put the nail in the Irish coffin with his side’s fifth and final goal of the night.
It goes without saying that it was a frustrating evening for Martin O’Neill, who oversaw his side being outplayed, outclassed, and tactically outsmarted by the Danish opponents.
O’Neill was criticised for some of his decisions during the campaign, and on the night, namely the lack of Wes Hoolahan from the start, the decision to withdraw defensive midfielders David Meyler and Harry Arter at half-time, with the Derryman effectively going for broke by bringing on Aiden McGeady and Wes Hoolahan.
RTÉ’s Tony O’Donoghue and Martin O’Neill don’t have the best relationship in the world, with O’Neill well known for giving tetchy responses to the Cork man’s questions in interviews.
Tuesday night’s was no different, with O’Neill walking out of the interview, with O’Donoghue in mid-question.
When the reporter questioned O’Neill about Ireland’s failure to beat Georgia, Serbia and other teams in games along the way, the 65-year-old became visibly frustrated.
“I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to say. We’ve played 24 games, we’ve been beaten four times,” he said while growing visibly frustrated.
We are in a play-off situation, and you keep going back that we conceded, we scored in the first minute against Serbia. Real Madrid and Barcelona can concede in the first minute and come back.. just let me finish, let me finish,” he said.
You can watch the tense four minutes here.
"We can come back again" – A defiant Martin O'Neill speaks to @corktod after a "really tough" night for his Irish team #irlden #rtesoccer pic.twitter.com/0OaGVwle6t
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 14, 2017
