The fantastic 2-0 win by the Republic of Ireland over Poland has led to the praise from the manager Giovanni Trapattoni. The Italian has also praised the youngsters within the national team squad by saying that they have improved a lot. Trapattoni decided to field a young look inside for the match against Poland. Players like Glenn Whelan and John O’Shea were amongst the few experienced members in the squad. Despite this, Ireland were able to dominate the match and comfortably win it 2-0 in the end. Ireland were coming into the match on the back of an indifferent form, which had raised questions of the manager Trapattoni.
In the last four encounters, Ireland have managed just two victories and have lost the other two. As a result, Poland came into the match with real confidence that they will be able to cause an upset. However, a goal from Ciaran Clark in the 35th minute settled the nerves for the Irish, while a goal from the Norwich City player Wes Hoolahan in the 76th minute helped Ireland doubled their advantage. Trapattoni was especially pleased afterwards due to the clean sheet kept by the team. This was the first clean sheet by Ireland in the last four matches.
“This evening we needed to see two or three good solutions with the new players. In the first half we suffered very much and Poland played very well. But our organisation and balance was very good and I think after the goal, in the second half, we played better and had more personality. The new players played very well and we are happy with the result. Poland did not deserve to lose but football is football. I think our defenders are good enough – we have no other solutions in that position,” said Trapattoni.