By Padraic Ryan
Ireland had gone into Friday’s 1-0 defeat to Scotland on the back of an impressive opening to their campaign and rich run of Euro qualifiers, having gone 12 matches without losing a game. Martin O’Neill’s starting 11 looked like it was picked with attacking football in mind.
However, in the event, stats from Opta Sports show that Ireland struggled to create a fluency to their play, producing their lowest number of passes completed in any of their four qualifiers so far, just 180 passes finding their man.
With Scotland completing in excess of 250 passes, it laid the groundwork for the Scots to keep possession – they had 56% overall to Ireland’s 44% - and ultimately, to win the game.
The nature of Ireland’s passes, too, showed that they struggled to create a fluid, on-the-ground approach to their play.
Of all those attempted, 16.9% of Ireland’s passes were headed, a 160% increase on the rate for their first three games.
While it was not a complete reversion to long-ball, route one stuff, nor were Ireland in any real danger of adopting a tiki-taka approach.
The number of fouls conceded also gives credence to the suggestion that the game was a tough, no-nonsense derby.
More fouls were committed by both sides than in Ireland’s three previous qualifiers, Ireland being pinged 17 times to Scotland’s nine.
With six yellow cards given out, four to Ireland and two to Scotland, it was clear that neither side held back in their tackles.
Overall, it was a disappointing outing for Ireland: a defeat at the end of a game in which they failed to find a passing rhythm and became involved in a scrappy tussle.
