Ireland leave Denmark with another point and more griping from their hosts.
Mick McCarthy’s men at least tried to get the ball on the deck and play a bit more. It did not always go to plan, but there were encouraging signs and a result to be satisfied with thanks to Shane Duffy.
Back in November 2017, Ireland went to Copenhagen – under Martin O’Neill – and parked several buses. Ahead of the game, Christian Eriksen had predicted how the game would go:
“If you have a team that wants to play and a team [in Ireland] that doesn’t want to play, then the game will be dragged out… They will play the way they have in previous games, with a lot of people behind the ball so we’ll have to play quick and open up the game.”
Ireland drew 0-0 on the night but were pumped 5-1 in Dublin and missed out on the World Cup. The Danes partied on the Aviva Stadium pitch and landed more digs about Ireland’s playing style soon after.
The needle continued in the Nations League with both sides drawing again, and it was 1-1 in their European Championship Qualifier on Friday. Ireland were 1-0 down until Shane Duffy equalised with a thumping header in the 84th minute.
Following the game, Duffy spoke with reporters about how the Dane’s comments on his team were used as motivation:
“Everyone has got their opinions on it, I don’t really look into it. Words get said before games and sometimes we say some words which might upset. But when we cross that line, everyone has got respect for each other. We know it’s a tough job out there.
“Maybe that was their tactic to try to get at us, but we used it as motivation out there. We tried to prove a point.
“I think someone said, ‘You can change the manager, but you can’t change the team’. I think it was a different team out there.”
Duffy referring to the pre-game comments of Denmark defender Mathias Jorgensen.
As for Eriksen, he kindly stopped for a chat with Off The Ball but walked away the moment his future at Tottenham was mentioned.
As for the game, Eriksen declared that a draw was not a fair result but did sprinkle these crumbs for the Irish:
“They changed that a bit from the way they played before. They played a bit more offensively and created a few chances. Every country plays their own football. I mean, it’s different for every country. Ireland gets results like this. We try to do it another way. It’s always different. It’s nothing against Ireland.”
When his club future was raised, Eriksen was out the gap.
You can watch that full interview here.
The return tie, on Monday, November 18, will certainly be worth watching.
