MARTIN O’NEILL watched on from home as Wales booked their place at the winter World Cup in Qatar with a 1-0 victory over Ukraine as a familiar feeling took hold of him.
He had witnessed Scotland’s 3-1 defeat at Hampden at the hands of Ukraine a few days earlier but as he watched Rob Page’s men become the 32nd and final country to book their place in this year’s showpiece tournament, he was reminded of a deficiency that both Scotland and the Republic of Ireland share.
It was Gareth Bale’s deflected first-half free-kick that ultimately sent the Welsh on their way to the World Cup and O’Neill couldn’t help but notice the star man’s impact. Sure, the likes of Scotland and Ireland have had their fair share of talented players over the years but the former Irish national team manager admits that neither have had anyone quite like Bale.
It is a telling problem for both nations. Both have struggled on the international stage in recent years and having that one player to call on, that one individual capable of producing a moment of magic in the final third, can so often be the difference between success and failure.
“Absolutely – you need that difference maker,” O’Neill said. “When I was managing the Republic, Robbie Keane was ending his career. He was about 34 and he just couldn’t do it.
“He could maybe play and score a hat-trick against Gibraltar but against the bigger sides he wouldn’t be able to do what he was capable of doing. We would have cried out for a Robbie Keane to be maybe 10 years younger but we didn’t have that.
“At the European Championships in France, our main man was Jon Walters. You wouldn’t call Jon prolific.
“And in the World Cup that we got to, when Denmark hammered us in the play-off – but it was a play-off game we got to – our main man was James McClean.
“Scotland do not possess a Gareth Bale at the minute and Ireland haven’t had one since Robbie Keane in his heyday. Everyone is crying out for that and that is probably the difference between Scotland not heading there [to Qatar].”
Superstars or not, Steve Clarke and his players will be heading to Dublin for their second Nations League fixture of the new campaign this evening. Ireland find themselves in a sorry state indeed, having lost to Armenia and Ukraine in their first two matches and although Wednesday night’s 2-0 win in Mount Florida restored a bit of the feel-good factor to the Scottish side, the pain from last week’s play-off defeat still lingers.
The result, O’Neill deduces, is that this evening’s match will be contested between two sets of players who will feel they have something to prove. All 22 men on the park will be hurting, he says, and it will be interesting to see how both teams respond to their respective disappointments.
He explained: “Considering that they Armenia had been beaten 9-0 by Norway in their previous result, [Ireland’s 1-0 defeat] was a major surprise.
“I know the conditions might have been very, very warm but you’re going to take that into consideration anyway when you are playing games at that time of year. I think it was a surprising result and I don’t think they can afford to repeat it.
“I think Scotland will get over the massive disappointment of not at least getting a chance to play Wales.
“They had battled so strongly to get there and had some fantastic moments over the last few months, getting last-minute goals and everything going in their direction. I feel that having one home game left to get down to Cardiff – I think you would have taken that some time ago.
“It was a real disappointment for Scotland. They didn’t play at all in the first half. Although I still think that if [John] McGinn’s header goes in, it gives them more time to get the equalising goal. It was really disappointing as far as Scotland are concerned.
I know that some of the pundits like big [Kris] Boydy were trying to soften the blow afterwards by saying Scotland will come again and that’s true, they will. I think they are strong enough but that takes a bit longer to get over because World Cups are not every 10 minutes.
“The Armenia [defeat for Ireland] was a big, big setback.
“Sometimes you get a couple of results in matches against sides who are not in the top 80 – teams like Andorra, Lithuania. You can start to get a false impression of where you are. Then you travel to Armenia fully expecting to win and get off to a bad start.
“It’s a major setback for them. The only thing is the Ukraine disappointment might hang over Scotland. I suppose a couple of years into Stephen Kenny’s reign you’d have to ask… I think there are a couple of things about it.
“If his remit was to rebuild an Irish side and get time to do that then that’s fine. But in international football you still have to win football matches.”
There might not be that one superstar within the Scotland squad’s ranks tonight but O’Neill admits to being impressed by the range of options available to Clarke.
“If Scotland are at full strength they have some really, really decent players playing for them at the minute,” he added. “I do think there has been an improvement in Scotland in recent times.
“But it depends how quickly they can get over that disappointment. They just have to push it to the side. Andy Robertson is playing for Liverpool, McGinn is playing for Aston Villa and playing super. There are some really decent players.”
