Republic of Ireland 2-0 Poland

With a half hour gone, and severely under the cosh, few would have expected Ireland to finish their opening game of 2013 with a clean sheet, two well-taken goals and a renewed confidence and vigour heading into next month’s crucial qualifiers.

But thanks to strikes in either half from Ciaran Clark and Wes Hoolahan, Ireland have got the new year off to a winning start on a surreal night where Polish fans outnumbered the Irish by two-to-one. They had to defend quite a bit, but did so resiliently, with the evening’s biggest positive coming in the form of a first clean sheet in six games.

Never has there been such an overwhelming visiting support at the D4 venue. With branches of the Polish supporters club from Ballina to Dungarvan representing, the Aviva was such a cacophony of eastern European noise that Irish fans were hard to pick out apart from a gathering of green behind the south goal.

It certainly livened up what had, in the run up to kick-off, felt like another humdrum, meaningless friendly. Giovanni Trapattoni and his players may have argued otherwise, seeing as it is their final warm-up before next month’s crucial qualifiers against Sweden and Austria, but there were no doubts that the game failed to capture the imagination of the locals.

With their countrymen roaring them on, Poland started the stronger, Sebastian Boenisch winning an early corner following a low cross which David Forde saved with his feet. In his pre-match press conference, Trapattoni spoke of debutant Conor Sammon and Shane Long getting at the visitors early on, but it took them 12 minutes to even get into the final third, Sammon flicking into the path of James McClean who overran it into the hands of Artur Boruc.

This was Forde’s opportunity to make the number one jersey his own but with 18 minutes played it almost went horribly wrong for the former Derry City stopper, slicing a John O’Shea backpass straight to the feet of Ludovic Obraniak. His blushes were saved however, as the midfielder shot wide from the edge of the area.

Robert Lewandowski, a name to strike fear into the world’s best keepers, was denied by a good save from the Galwegian on the half hour mark, redeeming himself further after the calamitous clearance. Overall, Clark and O’Shea dealt very well with the big Borussia Dortmund striker, though they certainly were made work a lot harder than the opposition defence in the early stages.

Yet with 35 minutes played, Ireland had the ball in the net. Clark’s first international goal, following a game of ping-pong inside the area, couldn’t have been more against the run of play, not that that mattered. James McClean won a corner from a neat Sammon flick, and the Sunderland winger’s delivery was met by Long. His attempt was blocked but a second strike was parried by Boruc into the path of Clark, who finished from 10 yards.

Forde mis-hit another kick which almost landed Ireland in trouble nearing the interval, but he stopped Lewandowski’s curling effort at full stretch to again alleviate the embarrassment.

Paul Green was introduced for Glenn Whelan at the break, when many would much rather have seen Jeff Hendrick or Wes Hoolahan given some game time, but even the Leeds man acquitted himself well. It’s fair to assume though, that considering he was only called-up as a replacement for David Meyler, he is not likely to feature against Sweden in six weeks’ time.

Poland continued to enjoy a larger slice of possession but their pressure was certainly not as relentless as the second period progressed. The Irish defence dealt with everything that was thrown their way quite solidly, especially O’Shea and Clark who reduced Lewandowski to near-anonymity as the evening wore on.

James McCarthy, putting in another impressive performance, went close with a venomous effort from the edge of the area, Arsenal stopper Wojciech Szczesny finger-tipping the ball over the bar for a corner, though chances started to dry up from the moment onwards.

Hoolahan’s introduction, to huge cheers from the home support, livened the game up a bit more however, and when Jeff Hendrick was introduced for McCarthy, Ireland’s attacking intent was ramped up to a nightly high.

The two combined magnificently for Ireland’s second, Hendrick supplying a sublime pass to the former Shelbourne star and after he took a touch to bring the ball under control, Hoolahan struck home with the outside of his left boot.

Like most friendlies, the game petered out towards the end but Ireland’s job was completed as the side look ahead towards Sweden in six weeks’ time with a positive mindset and a result to greatly boost morale.

They will still go to Stockholm as big underdogs, but will travel with more than just hope, now their belief has been rekindled.

Republic of Ireland: David Forde; Paul McShane, John O’Shea, Ciaran Clark (Richard Keogh 85), Greg Cunningham; Robbie Brady (Jonathan Walters 70), James McCarthy (Jeff Hendrick 70), Glenn Whelan (Paul Green ht), James McClean (Simon Cox 81); Shane Long (Wes Hoolahan 62), Conor Sammon.

Subs not used: Stephen Ward, Alex Pearce, Kevin Doyle, Andy Keogh, Stephen Henderson, Keiren Westwood.

Booked: James McCarthy, Greg Cunningham.

Poland: Artur Boruc (Wojciech Szczesny ht); Sebastien Boenich (Marcin Wasilewski ht), Kamil Glik, Damien Perquis, Jakub Wawrzyniak; Jakub Blaszczykowski,  Daniel Lukasik (Adrian Mierzejewski 76), Grzegorz Krychowiak, Ludovic Obraniak (Arkadiusz Milik 60), Szymon Pawlowski (Kamil Grosicki ht); Robert Lewandowski.

Subs not used: Lukasz Broz, Przemyslaw Kasmierczak, Piotr Celeban, Artur Sobiech, Pawel Wszolek, Marcin Komorowski, Ariel Borysiuk, Prezemyslaw Tyton.

Booked: Kamil Glik, Ludovic Obraniak

Referee: Sebastien Delferiere

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Ciaran Clark.