Match Focus: Special Team Spirit Leads Ireland to Euro 2016

After a performance of complete conviction from Ireland, on a brilliant night at Lansdowne Road, a jubilant Martin O’Neill had one caveat. He had to keep reminding myself to stop using the word “special” in his celebratory press conference.

That was how he described the evening, the performance, the result and the whole occasion. “I need another word,” O’Neill chuckled.

In truth, you can’t really blame him, because that is exactly what he has restored to this team. Ireland may not have any world-class players, they may be not have the technical ability of so many other countries, but they do have a very special quality that is largely absent in international football in general.

Ireland have the cohesion and spirit of a club team, and that raises the collective level of the team to one above so many other sides that notionally should be better than them. With pedigree players like Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic, Bosnia and Herzegovina probably should have been one of those sides - except for the fact that Ireland bettered them in all the other ways that ended up mattering most.

Some of this may seem like cliche, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true, and the reality is it is what has clinched qualification. There are a few key figures - both in terms of the numbers and players like Jon Walters - that emphasise this.

Ireland just won more of the key battles than Bosnia and thereby won the game. While O’Neill’s side attempted 18 tackles and won 16, Bosnia attempted 15 and won a pitiful 8. The latter just didn’t have the fight of the Irish - at least when it came to 50-50 challenges, if not arguing with the referee - and thereby lost their focus to also lose the tie.

Bosnia could have some grievance about how the opening goal came, since Ervin Zukanovic was hugely unlucky to have been penalised for a handball but the reality was that Emir Spahic was already producing the kind of chaos that meant he was lucky to stay on the pitch. While Bosnia - pun unintended - failed to handle that, Ireland only grew into the occasion more and more.

James McCarthy illustrated this aspect of the display. After four years with Ireland in which his ability to impose himself on a game has repeatedly been called into question, there was no doubt about that here, as he picked up on the performance put in in the 1-0 win over Germany.

McCarthy put in five tackles, more than anyone on the pitch. By far the most important of those came in the 67th minute. Ireland had just squandered a corner, with Bosnia suddenly able to burst forward for a three-on-three break. At just 1-0, it could have been the moment the tie was transformed. Instead, McCarthy slid in to instantly end the attack. Within five minutes, Walters had ended the tie, with the match winner the only player to garnering higher rating than the Everton man (7.67).

The sweet but sweeping nature of Walters' second finish also reflected how this wasn’t all about resilience and rigour for Ireland. It was also about a team coming into their own, combining all of the best elements of their play to produce their best performance of the campaign and add composure and some genuine finesse to their game.

For all Bosnia and Herzegovina’s superior possession, standing at 65.2%, Wes Hoolahan was still one of the most precise passers on the pitch, with 86% pass completion - only behind Spahic. The central defender was responsible for building so many Bosnian moves from the back, but it says much that they never really went anywhere.

Beyond hitting the bar late on when the tie was over, Mehmed Bazdarevic’s side created very little. Ireland, by contrast, did an awful lot.

“These are the nights we live for,” O’Neill said. It has set up their sixth ever tournament qualification. There will be better teams at that event. There won’t be many with a better cohesion or spirit.

Ireland do - yes - have something special.

Who do you think were Ireland's best players in Euro qualifying? Let us know in the comments below