|
Thierry Henry’s sublime second-half strike sealed a crucial 1-0 win for France over the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday, putting Les Bleus on course for World Cup qualification.
It had all the signs of another laborious performance from Raymond Domenech’s team against the feisty Irish at Lansdowne Road when Henry saved the French with a moment of inspiration on 67 minutes. The Arsenal striker, who had been anonymous until then, picked up possession thanks to some good hold-up play from Sylvain Wiltord and curled a superb shot over Shay Given and into the top-right corner from 20 yards.
It was a goal the French had scarcely merited, but thanks to the stout defending of Lilian Thuram and William Gallas, and an immense Claude Makelele in midfield, France clung on to seal a vital victory. It propels them to second spot in Group 4, level on points with Switzerland, whom they meet in Berne in their next game.
France started well and had Ireland stretched at the back as early as the third minute. Henry jinked inside Stephen Carr and switched the play to Wiltord on the right, but the Lyon player took too long to get his shot away and Roy Keane returned to make a timely intervention.
A piece of inspiration from Zinedine Zidane almost broke the deadlock five minutes later. The Real Madrid star curled a free kick over the wall from the left side of the area and his shot seemed bound for the top corner before Shay Given palmed it away with a stunning one-handed save.
The game was being played at a frantic pace, and the home side responded with a free kick of their own on 14 minutes, Andy Reid flipping the ball over the wall and onto the outside of Grégory Coupet’s post.
Ireland soon wrestled the upper hand from the French. Brian Kerr’s side seemed more determined, and with Roy Keane keeping Zidane quiet, Les Bleus struggled to get any attacking momentum going. The uncertain Willy Sagnol headed the ball into the path of Clinton Morrison on 18 minutes but the Crystal Palace forward struck a first-time shot wide of Coupet’s far post.
Damien Duff then escaped down the left and when his cross was dummied by Morrison, Robbie Keane was on hand to shoot goalwards. Fortunately for France the ball deflected off Jean-Alain Boumsong and behind for a corner. The visitors looked all at sea in defence at times, with Boumsong struggling to keep his concentration. He misjudged a long pass through the heart of the France defence on 25 minutes but just recovered in time to poke the ball away from Morrison who was bearing down on goal and ready to pull the trigger.
Makelele and Vieira both had speculative long-range shots that flew wide of Given’s goal, but with Henry all too often isolated in attack, France never looked like piercing an Ireland defence expertly marshalled by skipper Kenny Cunningham.
The Irish struggled to maintain the same intensity after the interval, but France looked incapable of profiting. Even when Ireland gifted them possession they did their best give it back to their opponents as quickly as possible. Zidane did release Henry on the right in the 53rd minute. Perhaps shocked by the fact that he was in space for the time in the match, the Gunners star played a hopeless cross into the box, far too far in front of the unmarked Wiltord.
But when a team has so many quality individuals, there is always a chance that one of them will do something special. That was the case with Henry, whose fantastic goal will go some way to silencing his critics who claim he is incapable of re-producing his Arsenal former at international level.
The goal was good enough to win any game and it took the wind right out of the Irish sails. Even with Zidane going off injured, then Djibril Cissé replacing Henry, France had little difficulty claiming the victory. On the few occasions that Ireland did get a glimpse of the France goal late on, Coupet’s handling was perfect, notably from Robbie Keane’s low drive on 73 minutes.
|
