Republic of Ireland 1-5 Denmark
The painful World Cup drought continues for Republic of Ireland.
Martin O’Neill and the Aviva Stadium crowd were hopeful that the Green Army could conquer the overwhelming betting odds set against them by many betting websites. They were hoping to pull off an improbable upset against a very talented Denmark.
Shane Duffy gave the Republic of Ireland some hope that their efforts during the qualifying football games will result in a win. Six minutes in, he jumped high like a salmon to head a poor clearance from Nicolai Jorgensen past Kasper Schmeichel for the goal.
The Boys in Green kept the attack going to build a decent lead over the Danish Dynamite and enjoy a momentous win in front of their fans. However, the Red-Whites were about to spoil the party for the hosts.
Twenty-nine minutes into the match, Pione Sisto made an incredible run to the box from the corner to make a pin-point pass to Andreas Christensen. The Chelsea man made a weak shot towards the goal, but Cyrus Christie failed to clear the shot and committed a horrible own goal. The shock goal gave the visitors the aggregate lead for the final World Cup ticket.
It all started going downhill for the Irish from that moment on. Christian Eriksen then went on to score a brilliant hat-trick. His first strike was a beautiful bullet from right outside the box, giving the Danish a very comfortable lead. The second strike was a fantastic finesse shot from outside the box as well, giving Darren Randolph no chance of touching the ball. Eriksen got his hat-trick from poaching a badly handled ball by Stephen Ward, hitting it straight to the net.
Ireland’s woes resumed to the last minutes of the game: they foolishly gave Nicklas Bendtner a spot-kick around the 90-minute mark, allowing him to end the game with an eye-popping 1-5 result.
This is a painful loss for the Green Army, especially since they began the game so well. Their next chance for the World Cup finals would be exactly 20 years since their last qualification. It has been a painful wait for the supporters, but they will have to endure some more.
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