Judging by last night’s meeting with Portugal, it’s difficult not to come away thinking that this Ireland team seem more suited to facing the bigger nations on the international stage.

Whereas they often struggle to raise there game against so called ‘lesser teams’, the Irish players always manage to put in a shift against a more fancied opponent.

The game in Lisbon was a prime example. While Ireland were short on attacking threat, they defended superbly and offered little encouragement to what was an incredibly talented Portuguese side. It was quite the contrast to some of their recent outings where they gave up chance after chance against rather weak opposition.

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Bernardo Silva Singles Out Ireland Star For Praise After Portugal Clash

Bernardo Silva played a key role for Portugal in this game, with the Manchester City star coming away rather impressed with the away team on the night.

Speaking to RTÉ after the game, he admitted that the Ireland players were ‘tough’ to come up against, singling out one particular member of the opposition for praise.

Tough game, tough game. Ireland made it really difficult for us.

They’re a big team, a tough group of lads. We’re happy with the result but not very happy with the performance; I don’t think we played really well.

Fair play to Ireland, I think they made it really tough for us tonight…

I haven’t watched (the penalty decision) so I don’t know, maybe it’s quite soft I don’t know. I would have to watch it again.

I know that the defender from Ireland was saying ‘yeah, it hit my chest, it hit my chest’ so I would have to watch it.

He’s (Kelleher) fantastic keeper, he was really good today, luckily for us we scored at the end but he was quite good today.

Caoimhín Kelleher certainly produced a wonderful performance in this game, his latest in a long string of top class displays in an Ireland jersey.

Heimir Hallgrimsson will be hoping that his team can build on this performance on Tuesday night when they host Armenia in Dublin. A win in that game is a must if they are to retain any fleeting hopes of reaching next summer’s World Cup in North America.

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