The Italian Job: Ireland's players celebrate a second goal

Pazzini shot wastefully wide from a tight angle with 25 minutes gone after being played in by Claudio Marchisio, and Antonio Nocerino blasted a long-range effort inches over the crossbar two minutes later. But while the personnel had changed for the Republic, the system and the mentality had not and that will have delighted their Italian coach, who has been trying to instil that message for the last three years.

When they defended, they did so in numbers and with characteristic determination, and if their approach in attack was more rugged than that of their opponents with Shane Long and Andy Keogh causing problems for Chiellini and Alessandro Gamberini, it proved effective.

Long and Keogh exchanged passes on the edge of the box before the Reading man dragged a 13th-minute shot across the face of goal to serve warning, but when the breakthrough eventually came nine minutes before the break, it was from an unexpected source.

Gamberini was penalised for the latest in a series of fouls on Long 25 yards out, and Hunt shaped to curl the free-kick towards goal. But he instead tapped the ball sideways to Andrews, whose skidding shot was firm and true as it flew past the diving Emiliano Viviano and into the bottom corner. The goal was greeted with delight by the small band of Ireland fans inside the stadium, but did not go down well with the locals.

« Previous123Next »