Group D: Austria v Republic of Ireland (tonight, 5pm, live on RTE2 & Sky Sports 1)
JUST over three years ago, Giovanni Trapattoni’s reign as Republic of Ireland manager ended in Vienna.
David Alaba, Austria’s marquee player, sunk the Irish with an 84th minute winner which ended their chances of featuring at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.
The next day Trapattoni was sacked.
Tonight, Austria’s World Cup qualification hopes hang by a thread.
Although managers will talk of the many “twists and turns” further down the road, the Austrians will be in trouble if they don’t bank the three points in front of a full house of 51,000 expectant fans in the Ernst Happel Stadium, Vienna’s timeless amphitheatre.
Swiss native Marcel Koller, the home side’s manager for the last five years, didn’t put a foot wrong in seamlessly delivering Euro 2016 qualification.
Their performances in qualification were so impressive that some pundits had them marked down as dark horses to win the Euros.
But they crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, failing to escape from the group stages.
But they recovered well and posted a 2-1 win in Georgia to get their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign off to a confident start back in September.
But a scruffy 2-2 draw at home to Wales and a 3-2 defeat in Serbia has sapped morale in the Austrian camp. For tonight’s hosts, this is a cup final.
For Ireland, a share of the spoils in Vienna would certainly put a spring in Martin O’Neill’s step as the international game goes into hibernation until next March.
Every match in Group D, O’Neill acknowledged, is important – but the Kilrea man insisted Ireland’s destiny would be revealed in 2017, not in chilly Vienna this evening where some snow is expected.
Asked would he be happy with a draw in Vienna, where the hosts rarely lose, O’Neill replied: “I don’t know how you plan for a draw. Being unbeaten going into Christmas would naturally give you a boost. Any point away from home – international football or club football or European football – is still seen as a good result.
“Regardless of what happens tomorrow night, our destiny is in 2017, really. By tomorrow night we will have played three games away from home and one at home, and we’ll level that up by next June.”
O’Neill, whose side are level on points with Serbia at the top of Group D, added: “This is still a very important game. Our attitude is to be on the front foot, try and be positive and try and go for it, which we tried to do in Serbia and came away with the draw, and which we tried to do against Georgia where Seamus’ s goal in the second half gave us a hard-earned victory, and conceding a poor goal in Moldova just before half-time and fighting back to win. So we’ve got plenty of spirit about the team.”
While Austria are in danger of being cut adrift from frontrunners Serbia, Republic and Wales, their performances in Group D mightn’t be as uninspiring as their fourth place suggests.
They twice pegged back Wales last month, had twice as many shots as their visitors, hogging 62 per cent of possession in the process.
Even in Serbia, they had more possession (57 per cent) and despite fighting back twice to level against the group leaders they were undone by a Dusan Tadic strike with 16 minutes remaining.
Of course, possession doesn’t win you games.
Just look at the Republic. They had just 30 per cent of the ball in Belgrade and still grabbed a draw. Georgia had 57 per cent of possession in Dublin and were felled by Seamus Coleman’s second half goal, while even little Moldova shaded the possession stakes against the Republic in Chisinau last month – 51 to 49 per cent – but the Irish were full value for their 3-1 win.
A manager can’t be too candid in front of the full glare of the media – but clearly O’Neill would bite Austria’s hand off for a point, particularly with the absentees the squad has had to absorb.
Shane Long and Daryl Murphy are both ruled out through injury, with Jonathan Walters expected to lead the line in Vienna tonight, and James McClean looks to have recovered from a worrying back injury that threatened his participation at the beginning of the week.
With Robbie Brady expected to drop into left-back in place of the injured Stephen Ward, there is a growing sense that tonight could be the night when Bournemouth’s in-form Harry Arter receives his international baptism.
But O’Neill wasn’t giving anything away regarding his starting line-up.
“Harry’s been doing pretty well for Bournemouth,” said the manager.
“He’s fit. I think he came off at the weekend in the game that they lost, for tactical reasons. But he’s raring to go. If he’s selected and does well that would be lovely but over the period of the next two years we’re hoping he is able to add something to our squad.”
Wes Hoolahan did his claims for a starting place no harm at all after assisting for two of Ireland’s goals in Moldova last month.
To start Arter and Hoolahan might go against O’Neill’s conservative instincts, particularly away from home.
“Austria can suddenly spring into action and are a very good side,” warned O’Neill.
“They came home from the Euros and would have been very disappointed because they were expected to do better than that [a first round exit].
“They drew with Portugal who eventually won the competition, so I think they’ll want to make amends.
“I don’t think anyone was surprised about Wales drawing here and the defeat in Serbia would not be the end of the world.
“Austria will be there or thereabouts regardless of what happens tomorrow night.”
Last night, O’Neill appeared to be in better humour than he was ahead of the Georgia and Moldova games.
Never one to pass up an opportunity of a quip, a reporter informed the manager that there was snow expected ahead of tomorrow night’s game.
O’Neill seemed genuinely surprised and nudged his press officer Ian Mallon for not checking the forecast.
The reporter added that bad weather seemed to be “following” O’Neill around, referring to the fog in Bosnia and the deluge of rain in Belgrade, O’Neill joked: “Do you mean the weather or do you mean Ian?”
