Pride restored for a rejuvenated Ireland under Mick McCarthy.
There were periods in the game where we were up against it and had to ride our luck, but the 1-1 draw against Denmark tonight is easily the best account we have given of ourselves against the Danes in our last five meetings.
The build-up to tonight's game was largely focused on some of the rather negative assessments that the Danish camp had given of Ireland's football capabilities over the last two years.
The pick of those comments came from Danish midfielder Thomas Delaney, who described playing against Ireland's putrid unambitious playing style under the previous regime as similar to trying to 'open a tin of beans with your bare hands.'
Republic of Ireland are now unbeaten in their last 5 away games in Denmark, conceding just 1 goal.
Denmark had 18 attempts tonight, the same amount as in their 5-1 win against the Republic of Ireland in November 2017. pic.twitter.com/i0hNH4dSts— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) June 7, 2019
While much of their criticisms may be reasonable given how bad our performances were in the last few games under Martin O'Neill, the fact that so many Danish players were happy to talk us down did start to sting.
One man who clearly took offence, was Ireland's James McClean, who was happy to dish out some salt of his own when speaking with Sky Sports after tonight's game.
Professionals criticising you and not in a nice way either. We wanted to go out and prove a point. Fair enough, they beat us 5-1, but we played them five times recently and drew four so they're not much better than us themselves, are they?
Fair point James, fair point. It looks like Thomas won't be eating any beans for a while yet.
