Republic of Ireland 1 Croatia 3: Jelavic and co give Scots reasons to be fearful

Chief football writer

Monday 11 June 2012

GIOVANNI Trapattoni may not feel like talking about this match for a while, but it really would be enormously helpful for Scotland if he could share a little intelligence in the name of Celtic goodwill.

Nikica Jelavic and Richard Dunne compete as Croatia apply the pressure in Poznan. Picture: Getty Images

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Michael Grant

The Italian coach's immediate concern will be a few days of urgent crisis management in which he must try to save the Republic of Ireland in Euro 2012, a competition that already looks chillingly like a lost cause for them. They fell apart against Croatia in their opening Group C match in Poznan last night. Next up? Spain on Thursday and Italy on Monday. The European Championships is a tournament which can seem like fun for months and suddenly turns brutal within 90 minutes.

There will be no schadenfreude towards the Irish from Scotland. This country was envious of them for sharing a stage with Croatia but it would have been sobering for Craig Levein, the national manager, to witness such a persuasive demonstration of the winners' abilities. Could Scotland hope to do any better? There isn't too long a wait to find out. In almost exactly a year's time, June 7, 2013, the teams will meet in the World Cup qualifying campaign. The game is at 9pm on a Friday night, probably in Zagreb. A year can be a long time in football, but even allowing for the inexplicable peculiarities of the FIFA world rankings the current snapshot shows them to be eighth in the world, ahead of Argentina, Italy and France. That may not be an accurate reflection of the standings but it is not difficult to imagine the strength, intelligence and danger they showed last night causing massive problems for Scotland. The Irish are ranked 21st in the world and Scotland 49th.There was nothing to justify some pre-tournament reports that Croatia were a shadow of the force they have been in recent years. A sluggish Ireland were heavily complicit in their own downfall with sleepy defending at Croatia's first, a howler at their second, and what amounted to an unfortunate own goal for their third. Still, Croatia's exploitation of the weaknesses was merciless. Mario Mandzukic, the Wolfsburg striker, had the space and time to rise off one knee and connect with a header which somehow beat Shay Given from 12 yards at the opener. Mandzukic had another at the start of the second half when his header hit a post and rebounded off Given's forehead and back into his own net. Mandzukic was a constant handful. His goals sandwiching one from Nikica Jelavic. The former Rangers man jabbed a close-range finish after Stephen Ward had sclaffed a hopeless attempt to clear the ball straight into his path. Mandzukic outshone Jelavic – the latter had not scored in any of their qualifiers – but the pair of them bubble with potential and they are not the only menaces in Slaven Bilic's team. Ivan Rakitic of Seville and Borussia Dortmund's Ivan Perisic buzzed at Trapattoni's team and, inevitably, Luka Modric orchestrated their play with class and intelligence. Having conceded the first after only 159 seconds, Ireland equalised when Aiden McGeady's free-kick was rammed in at the back post by Sean St Ledger's header. That gave them a foothold, but it was temporary even if Robbie Keane should have had a second-half penalty. They were a poor second and nowhere near as solid at the back as they had been in qualifying.Here was an Irish team without a player who finished in the top eight of the Barclays Premier League (Scotland had two, Darren Fletcher and Charlie Adam). Using that division as an indicator of strength, more of the Scotland team are drawn from that division. Kevin Doyle, Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Stephen Ward, St Ledger: the Irish side was stocked with men of comparable standard to those available to Scotland.What they do have is a defensive unit led by Richard Dunne which, last night notwithstanding, is of a higher standard than Scotland's. They have a top-class finisher with a prolific record at international level, Robbie Keane. And they have a manager, Trapattoni, who has shown he can take an unremarkable squad to a tournament. Can Levein?"Trap" doesn't come cheap. Around half of his £1.2m salary – around three times that of Levein – is paid by a businessman, Denis O'Brien. Both are perceived to be defensive, but the Italian played both Keane and Doyle in a 4-4-2 when it would have been unthinkable for Scotland to do the same. They did not lose because of that; defending too deep, and poorly, were the decisive factors.Ireland's great old coach will again have to give the nation value for their money over the next seven days, but it won't be long before this powerful Croatian team becomes Levein's problem too.

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Republic of Ireland 1 Croatia 3: Jelavic and co give Scots reasons to be fearful

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