Ciaran Clark did not sleep well in the Trianon Palace on Monday night.
All the comfort and luxury that Versailles’ finest hostelry had to offer could not make the defender’s slumber any more restful.
The 26-year-old could not help but play the pivotal moment of that evening’s Group E opener over in his head. With Ireland leading Sweden 1-0 through a tremendous Wes Hoolahan goal, Clark moved to cut out a dangerous Zlatan Ibrahimovic cross from the inside left channel.
With Sebastian Larsson lurking behind him and the cross seemingly just beyond the reach of Darren Randolph, the Aston Villa defender had no choice but to attempt an intercept.
Unfortunately the ball ricocheted off Clark and past Randolph. The centre-half, who had flirted with danger on a number of occasions as the Irish team retreated towards their own goal, had scored an own goal.
The first own goal by an Irish player at a major tournament. The first in 16 matches at European Championships and World Cups. It was enough to earn Sweden a point and deny Ireland a famous win.
“I found it hard to sleep after the game, it kept going over in my head,” said Clark on Thursday as he spoke ahead of Saturday’s clash with Belgium.
“The next day you have to wake up, try and put that to one side and focus on the next game. Which is what I have done.”
Richard Keogh sat beside Clark in the gymnasium at Stade de Montbauron, which has been transformed into the Irish media centre. The Derby County captain was a near-permanent fixture in qualifying but is unlikely to dislodge Clark in Bordeaux.
It would be harsh in the extreme to drop Clark after one mistake in an otherwise excellent display, which saw him marshal Ibrahimovic for large periods at Stade de France. As Keogh himself said, there was little else Clark could do when the cross came in.
That didn’t stop Clark from tormenting himself on Monday night, before snapping out of his funk in time to get back to work on Tuesday.
“It is one of those things. You think about it for that night, as I said I found it hard to sleep but when I woke up the next day you have to push that to one side, forget about it, concentrate on training and recovery and all the things you need to prepare yourself for the game coming up, which I feel I have done,” he said.
“All the lads have said the same. There is nothing I could have done at the time, I don’t think. It is the natural reaction for a defender to try and defend the ball from going in the goal but there was a guy behind me and I tried to get it out of the way but unfortunately it went in the goal.”
With the unfortunate incident out of his system the hope is Clark will sleep well between now and Saturday’s encounter at Stade de Bordeaux.
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