Ireland vs Poland

Ireland 2-0 Poland

Aviva Stadium

6^th of February 2013.

In what started as a bad start for Giovanni Trapattoni’s side you’d be forgiven for thinking that we would be on the bad side of a result at the Aviva Stadium last night.

The Polish, packed with flares and different kinds of pyro, outnumbered the home fans just like back in 2008. They saw their team create early chances and looked certain to stick the ball into David Forde’s net. But, it wasn’t to be.

Ireland took the lead through Aston Villa defender Ciaran Clarke, who pounced on a shot after striker Shane Long saw his shot come back of Polish and former Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc. Clarke simply pulled off a cute finish into the bottom right hand corner of the Polish goal. The home fans, even some of the Polish, celebrated.

The visitors almost hit back straight away through Lewandowski who broke through the sleeping Irish defence only to find the in-form Milwall goalkeeper David Forde. Forde had a very impressive night and was on hand more than once to keep out many Polish attacks.

The half time whistle blew and the home side went in 1-0 up through Ciaran Clarke. All in all, a good performance at home by Ireland.

The good performance didn’t stop there. The Irish national team are known to sit back and defend a 1 goal lead, this time they attacked looking for that all important second goal.

Subs throughout the game were made by both the home side and the away side. We saw a few familiar faces, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny replacing Artur Boruc for the away side. Jeff  Hendrick and Wes Hoolahan coming into the Irish side. Finally, a bit of League of Ireland into the Irish national side.

The two Irish subs proved to be vital to the home side’s impressive win. As the second Irish goal came from none other than former Shelbourne man Wes Hoolahan. He managed to get himself on the end of a Jeff Hendrick pass, to the manager’s delight. 2-0 Ireland (Clarke, Hoolahan)

Despite some more pyro from the away side, coming from all corners of the away stand. The fire crew were on hand to make sure barely any pyro reached the field of play.  The game ran its course and finished in a successful win for Giovanni Trapattoni’s side. May be only a friendly but it’s the last warm up game coming into the sides Qualifiers later this year.

Thanks for reading,

Wrote by Alex Murray for Rovers Ramblings.