I think we deserved to win because the possession (we had in) the first and also the second half," coach Giovanni Trapattoni told reporters. "I think we could also have scored two. (We had) three or four good opportunities." Bosnia, who missed out on qualification for Euro 2012 following a playoff defeat by Portugal, failed to capitalise on a string of chances against a weakened Irish defence missing defender John O'Shea and veteran goalkeeper Shay Given. Ireland, who qualified for their first major tournament in a decade by beating Estonia, produced a fine attacking display that belied their reputation as a very defensive team. They face world and European champions Spain next month in a tough Group C in Ukraine and Poland that also includes Italy and Croatia. They play Hungary on June 4 in their final friendly before the tournament. McGeady's man-of-the-match winning performance and an excellent display by Sunderland's McClean on his first start for Ireland may give Trapattoni a selection dilemma on the flanks. McClean, cheered by the crowd every time he got the ball, made his case for a start ahead of Damien Duff with incisive runs and a shot well saved in the 41st minute. "Competition is of course the life of the team," Trapattoni said when asked about the performance of players not normally in the first team, adding that McClean faded in the second half. Ireland struggled to cope with a physical Bosnian team in the first 20 minutes, with striker Edin Dzeko threading the ball across an open goal mouth but Vedad Ibisevic failed to finish. Ireland improved later in the half but Robbie Keane, Darron Gibson and Duff all failed to capitalise on good opportunities. Both sides had chances in an open second half with McGeady and Walters hitting the woodwork and Bosnia's Miroslav Stevanovic rolling the ball across the face of the Irish goal. The team treated the crowd of 37,100 to a lap of honour ahead of their flight to Italy on Sunday for a pre-tournament training camp. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...d-20120526_1_robbie-keane-damien-duff-ireland
Did well first half and nearly scored. Very typical of an ok performance he would have had for us. Hit and miss really and faded in the second half. He took the corners and a direct free kick. Dissapointingly for him he was upstaged by Aiden McGeady who came on second half ran the show set the goal up and got man of the match
watched the game, it was a very decent performance imo had a unlucky shot, a few good crosses, beat the man a fair few times (was starting to get sussed out later however) was quite relaxed tbh, a good debut imo
Why is it a disappointment that McGeady upstaged him? I am a big fan of McGeady and think and hope we will be in for him in the summer. Good pacy player who can cross and score from both wide position.
Disappointing for McClean because he might be up against McGeady for a starting place and I think Trap will go for Duff and McGeady on the wings then McClean will have to settle for a place object the bench. Im also a fan of McGeady and if the price was right id love him here
