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Ireland fightback to win | Keane injured

Wednesday 20th August 2003, 12:32 am

The moment of pain, Robbie Keane winces as he picks up his injury.

Photo by Tom Carey.

A marvellous fight-back in the final twenty minutes saw Ireland come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1 against a strong Australian side at Lansdowne Road. The win was marred though by a serious injury to Robbie Keane just before half time.

The visitors had the better of a poor first half, and in reality should have had at least one goal for the first 45 minutes. Bresciano having two good chances, blasting against the crossbar from twenty yards out but failing to trouble Nicky Colgan when one-on-one.

A moment of major concern for Ireland fans, especially with the Russia game just weeks away, occurred on the stroke of half-time. Robbie Keane chasing a ball into the area got his legs tangled with an Australian defender Tony Popovic, and did not just turn his ankle as some news sources may suggest. Early reports suggested ligament damage in Keane's right ankle but as always initial reports are not always accurate. It was a double first half blow considering Matt Holland was forced off after less than half of the half had passed, suffering from an ankle injury.

Australia got the breakthrough just four minutes into the second half, playing right through the centre of the Irish defence, Mark Viduka chested the ball before blasting into the roof of the net giving Colgan no chance.

At that point it looked like being an easy night for the Aussies and Viduka could have had a second shortly after, but Colgan pulled off a fine save to deny him.

As time began to ebb away, it looked like manager Brian Kerr had even thrown in the towel, making more substitutions than ever. However, these changes led to Ireland's equaliser and also the eventual winner. A free-kick whipped in at pace from Ian Harte picked out John O'Shea perfectly and the Man United man headed cleanly into the back of the net on 74 minutes.

Amazingly Harte fashioned a second on 81 minutes, a long ball out of defence saw Clinton Morrison get the vital touch ahead of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and the ball took an eternity to cross the line, but it did and Ireland had won again. The closing ten minutes saw Ireland dominate and a third goal wouldn't have been a surprise at that stage.

The first half performance left a lot to be desired and the contribution from Stephen Carr in particular was particularly worrying. On the other hand, Nick Colgan had his first international start and earned himself man-of-the-match. Ian Harte did a good job when he came on.


Ireland : Colgan, Carr (Harte 58), O'Shea, Breen (O'Brien 46), Cunningham (Dunne 84), Holland (Healy 19), Kinsella, Finnan (Kilbane 67), Duff (Quinn 79), Keane (Connolly 45), Doherty (Morrison 58).