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Republic of Ireland 1 Nigeria 1

By
SETANTA SPORTS,

Published Friday, May 29, 2009, 11:39 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:44 PM

 

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Republic of Ireland's Robbie Keane rounds Nigeria's Austin Ejide to score Ireland's first goal during the Friendly match at Craven Cottage, London.
Photo by PA Wire/Press Association Images

The Republic of Ireland played out a 1-1 draw with Nigeria in a friendly on Friday.

A goal from Michael Enemaro on the half hour mark set The Super Eagles on their way at Craven Cottage before Robbie Keane pulled one back to level matters.

The Irish captain displayed his trademark coolness inside the opposition's penalty area for his goal as he collected as pass from Keith Andrews, rounded the keeper, and slotted into an empty net.

Even though a winning goal evaded them, Ireland will be generally pleased with how they fared in this match, which was used as a warm-up for next week's World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria.

Giovanni Trapattoni will undoubtedly have noticed that his team looked disjointed at times in the game, although he can easily point to the fact that he gave six players their debuts and that this fixture arrives at the end of a long season.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of positives for the Irish boss to take. Not only did he introduce some new faces to his pool of players, but he saw his side move the ball well, keep their shape, look to attack, and respond well after conceding a soft goal.

Of the new players, Leon Best linked-up well with Keane, Eddie Nolan and Kevin Foley were decent in the two full-back positions, Liam Lawrence showed glimpses of what he can do when on the ball, Sean St Ledger looked comfortable in the heart of the defence, and Kieren Westwood did okay with the limited amount of ball that came his way.

There are some issues to address though and Trapattoni will not have been happy to see Enemaro get in front of Foley to convert a cross from Femi Olubayo.

It only took eight minutes for Ireland to register a response when Liam Miller - who did himself no harm with a strong performance - spinning the ball into Andrews before he fed Keane and the Tottenham Hotspur striker did the rest.

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