{"id":138337,"date":"2025-11-13T22:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/138337\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:12:09","slug":"ronaldo-left-feeling-sick-as-a-parrott-as-irelands-world-cup-campaign-finally-ignites-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/138337\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo left feeling sick as a Parrott as Ireland\u2019s World Cup campaign finally ignites \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well now, when did you last see the like? Those of you (okay, us) who suspected Thursday evening would see a World Cup<\/a> qualifying campaign that began with a whimper fail to produce even a hint of a bang? Oh ye (we) of little faith. We got the mother, father, auntie and uncle of all bangs.<\/p>\n

A 2-0 win over Portugal – repeat, lest you don\u2019t believe it: a 2-0 win over Portugal – means the Republic of Ireland<\/a>\u2019s hopes of a trip to United States\/Canada\/Mexico next summer are alive and kicking. <\/p>\n

True, a win is still required against Hungary in Budapest on Sunday, in the final group game, and that\u2019s not quite a gimme. But after a campaign that offered little to hearten us until Thursday night, you\u2019d take that chance and give it a big hug. <\/p>\n

Some night.<\/p>\n

The teams emerged from the tunnel. Anthems. Spaniard Roberto Mart\u00ednez belted out the Portuguese tune, Icelander Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> did the same with Amhr\u00e1n na bhFiann. Truly, it is an international game. <\/p>\n

The opening 15-ish minutes were nervy enough, Portugal tapping the ball about the place like, as Ossie Ardiles once put it, the ball was their \u201clubber\u2019. Lover, that is. <\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo had expressed the hope before the game that the home crowd wouldn\u2019t boo him too much. The smattering of youngsters holding up \u2018Ronaldo – Can I Have Your Shirt?\u2019 signs certainly bowed to his wish, but a few rowdy pockets didn\u2019t. Which probably wasn\u2019t wise. Do you want to raise the hackles of a fella with 143 goals in 225 international appearances who is targeting a record sixth World Cup? <\/p>\n

Still, the jeers mounted when he lined up an early free-kick, the guffaws soaring when he sent a shot over the bar much like a pin-point Jack Crowley conversion. <\/p>\n

Some relief, then, but apart from the occasional – and brief – Irish visits in to the opposition\u2019s half in those early stages, Portugal were bossing it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIF ANYTHING MAKES YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE, REPORT,\u201d read the advice on the stadium\u2019s digital ad-thingie, so the sell-out crowd might have been tempted to declare their discomfort to the authorities about the visitors\u2019 lording it about the place. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Troy Parrott scores his side’s first goal against Portugal. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But. And it\u2019s a humongous one. Troy Parrott<\/a> only went and scored, nodding home from a corner. If there had been a roof on the place, it would have ended up in Rosslare. <\/p>\n

By then, Ireland had just 30-ish per cent of the possession, so there was a slight sense of this being September 2001 all over again, when Ireland, as your Granny will tell you, did unto the Dutch what they were now threatening to do unto Portugal. <\/p>\n

This was a bit different, though, because, after Chiedozie Ogbene hit the post, the Troy man scored again. Repeat: The Troy man scored again. The \u2018Ronaldo sick as a Parrott\u2019 headlines were writing themselves.<\/p>\n

We had, then, officially entered \u2018pinch me\u2019 territory, the old stadium not seeing a night quite like it in a decade or more. A team that had appeared to adopt a \u2018hold on for dear life\u2019 approach to their campaign thus far, had suddenly discovered that they\u2019re half decent when they test out the opposition\u2019s rearguard. <\/p>\n

Half-time, the roar cacophonous, the stadium a sea of swirling scarves. Ronaldo ashen-faced as he headed for the tunnel. But you know what they say: 2-0 is a dangerous lead in football. You\u2019d imagine 1-0 would be trickier still, but no matter, you knew Portugal would throw the kitchen sink, dishwasher, tumble dryer and microwave at it in the second half. <\/p>\n

\"Portugal'sPortugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo gestures after his altercation with Dara O’Shea – he would be sent off for the incident. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

That they did, with no effect in the first 15 minutes, at which point Ronaldo\u2019s pre-match promise to be \u201ca good boy\u201d during the game came a touch unstuck. <\/p>\n

A yellow for a barge in to Dara O\u2019Shea. A VAR check. An upgrade to red. The crowd bellowed. Unadulterated glee. Except, maybe, from the \u2018Ronaldo – Can I Have Your Shirt?\u2019 contingent. Now wasn\u2019t a good time to ask. <\/p>\n

He applauded the euphoric crowd and gave them a thumbs up as he departed the scene. The lad has always done sarcasm well. And then he had words with Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson who he had suggested pre-match was playing mind games when he accused the Portuguese captain of trying to control referees. \u2018Yap, yap, yap,\u2019 he suggested with his blinking hand in Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s direction, but after they had a frank exchange of views, they shook hands. <\/p>\n

So, 2-0 against 10 men, Portugal opting for a bit of a Kamikaze approach to rescue their evening. The swirling scarves went a little limp with the nerves, Caoimhin Kelleher doing Caoimhin Kelleher things to ease them. <\/p>\n

Full-time. It\u2019s possible that when the Irish team bus left the stadium, it was surrounded with kids holding up \u2018Troy – Can I Have Your Shirt?\u2019 signs.<\/p>\n

Oh what a night. Magical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well now, when did you last see the like? Those of you (okay, us) who suspected Thursday evening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15561,61,60,43,1842,44452,4018],"class_list":["post-138337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-troy-parrott","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}