Republic duo rue missed chances
Republic of Ireland duo Seamus Coleman and John O’Shea both felt their side were made to pay for not making their early dominance count in their 1-0 defeat against Greece at the Aviva Stadium last night.
Jose Holebas’ first-half strike ensured the Republic finished 2012 without victory although the hosts showed plenty of endeavour and they felt they should have had a penalty, with Konstantinos Stafylidis perhaps considering himself extremely fortunate not to be penalised for his less-than-effective attempt to deal with Stephen Ward’s deep cross.
Simon Cox failed to hit the target with just the keeper to beat and he was made to rue the miss when Holebas scored the decisive goal after 29 minutes.
“I thought we played very well, I thought we deserved to win the game. We passed the ball very well at times and we’re just disappointed to get nothing from it,” Coleman told Sky Sports.
“I thought we definitely had a penalty claim in the first minute of the game. I thought it was a stonewall penalty but I thought we played all right. Just disappointed to get nothing from it.”
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Greece took the lead when skipper Georgios Samaras, who had earlier had to leave the pitch for treatment to a head wound, turned Konstantinos Mitroglou’s pass into the path of Holebas, who span O’Shea and thumped the ball into the bottom corner.
O’Shea admitted he should have done better but was pleased with the team’s overall performance.
“It’s a step forward but we’re obviously disappointed,” he said. “For the goal I should have done better, I let him come off just too easy but I think we should have been a couple of goals up by then.
“We had the penalty shout early on and the way we started the game we probably deserved to be ahead but credit to Greece.
“They haven’t been beaten in a few games and they’ve put in a determined, defensive performance.
“In the second half we probably could have done things a little better quicker and better in the final third to create more clear cut chances but we had the confidence to knock it about and anytime we got Seamus on the ball down the flanks, we looked very dangerous.”
The defeat at the Aviva Stadium, where they were battered 6-1 by Germany in a World Cup qualifier last month, leaves Trapattoni’s detractors with enough ammunition to maintain their opposition to his continued presence at the helm heading into March’s crucial World Cup qualifiers against Sweden and Austria.
Yet O’Shea sees reason for optimism.
“We would have liked to pick up a win tonight to give everyone a bit of a boost but I think performance-wise it was much better than the Germany game,” added the Sunderland defender.
“We should have really liked to score a couple of goals tonight but I think the youngsters that came on got more experience and there were a few lads injured so fingers crossed everyone will be fully fit for the Austria and Sweden games because they’re going to be massive.”
