Republic of Ireland beat Macedonia 2-1 to go joint top in Group C: Euro 2012 qualifiers
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Slovakia-c3007.
Giovanni Trapattoni included several English Premier League players in his starting line-up. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robbie-Keane-c31215 and Kevin Doyle started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation for the hosts.
On the other hand, Macedonian manager Mirsad Jonuz opted for a 4-5-1 formation with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Goran-Pandev-c15161 starting as a lone forward.
The hosts could not have asked for a better start to the game, as they took the lead in the second minute. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aiden-McGeady-c4091, who smashed a thunderous low drive into the bottom corner of the net, to make it
1-0 for the Boys in Green.
Minutes later, Pandev could have scored a wonderful solo goal, after he beat four men to enter the Irish box but Darren O’Dea made a superb sliding block to deny him the goal.
The hosts dominated the major chunk of possession and created some nice openings to double their lead. In the 10th minute, Doyle released a wonderful through ball to Keane but the West Ham United man’s powerful low drive was met by a finger tip
save from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Edin-Nuredinoski-c11946.
The hosts then suffered a huge blow when Kevin Doyle slipped to the turf and had to leave the field early with a knee injury. He was replaced by Shane Long.
Three minutes later, the Macedonian goalkeeper spilled a straight forward free kick from Manchester United midfielder Darren Gibson, and Keane smacked the loose ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 for the hosts. At that point the visitors were just
looking for damage limitation as they failed to create any chances in the opening half hour.
In the 33rd minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ivan-c17215 Trickovski weaved past the defender and smacked a wonderful shot which beat the hosts’ goalkeeper but went inches wide of the post.
The visitors managed to pull a goal back on the stroke of half time. Trickovski cut inside beautifully past two defenders and slotted a clam finish past Keiren Westwood, to make it 2-1.
The visitors could have equalised immediately after the restart but Pandev smashed a shot just wide of the goal from Goran Popov’s lovely through ball.
Both teams created several opportunities in the second half but all in vain. Macedonia were playing at full throttle and an equaliser looked inevitable. Trickovski and Pandev came extremely close to leveling things but Westwood was up to the challenge.
The visitors failed to take their chances as they slumped to their third defeat of the competition.
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