Liam Scales 51st minute red card proved to be costly for the Boys in Green
England 5
Ireland 0
A brave first-half performance was overshadowed by a second-half capitulation as Heimir Hallgrímsson’s Ireland succumbed to a 5-0 defeat at the hands of England this evening.
The game took a major turn in the 51st minute when Liam Scales was shown a second yellow card to reduce Ireland to ten men in their final Nations League group game.
Despite having never beaten England at Wembley, Ireland came into the game in positive spirits after Thursday’s 1-0 victory over Finland, with Hallgrímsson naming a strong line-up including a debut for Luton Town defender Mark McGuinness.
England started strongly with early chances for Kyle Walker and Noni Madueke, but the Irish defence matched everything Lee Carsley’s side threw at them and kept last year’s European Golden Boot winner Harry Kane largely subdued for the opening 45 minutes.
Ireland were aggrieved not to win a penalty 21 minutes in when Evan Ferguson appeared to have his jersey pulled by Marc Guehi, but the referee waved it away and VAR didn’t see enough to intervene despite Richie Sadlier claiming it was a “stonewall penalty” during RTE’s half-time analysis.
Ireland then had a second penalty claim dismissed when Sammie Szmodics looked to have been clipped by England’s Kyle Walker, but again the referee and VAR showed no interest in awarding a penalty.
Speaking during RTE’s post-game coverage, Sadlier described it as “The most promising 45 minutes I’ve seen from Ireland in a long-time”.
Ireland had much to be happy about with the game scoreless at half-time, but their second-half optimism lasted just 6 minutes as Jude Bellingham broke through the Irish back line before being taken down by Liam Scales. After Scales was shown a second-yellow card by the referee, Harry Kane converted the resulting penalty to put England 1-0 ahead.
Anthony Gordon doubled the lead just two minutes later before Conor Gallagher added a third as England scored three goals in six minutes.
Things went from bad to worse for Ireland as Jarrod Bowen and debutant Taylor Harwood-Belis scored England’s fourth and fifth goals respectively to give England a comfortable victory ensurinf they finish top of the group and gain automatic promotion to Group A of the Nations League next season.
“It’s easy to say we had a good first half but when you lose 5-0, there’s nothing really you can say” said Ireland Manager Heimir Hallgrímsson in his post-match interview. “I felt we just lost our heads at that moment, and after that there was no way back”.
A dismal result in the end for Ireland, but clear signs of improvement under this new management with some promising team performances at times and encouraging individual performances from the likes of Evan Ferguson, Sammie Szmodics, Nathan Collins and Caoimhin Kelleher who has been in excellent for club and country this season.
Ireland now await the remaining final round games to be completed before finding out their opponents in what will be a relegation playoff to decide which teams will be relegated to Group C of the European Nations League.