Late own-goal salvages draw for Ireland against Serbia

Ireland doubled their points tally in World Cup qualifying with their second successive 1-1 home draw after a late own-goal from Nikola Milenkovic rescued a point for Stephen Kenny’s men against Serbia.

Even though they failed to end their 2-year winless competitive match run, under pressure Ireland manager Stephen Kenny will be happy with this performance and result against a strong Serbian side who are battling it out with Portugal for the top spot in Group A.

The hosts started slowly and couldn’t get the ball off Serbia in the first quarter of the match, which in turn, saw the visitors take a deserved lead in the 20th minute when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored at the near post with a thunderbolt of a header that Ireland’s young goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu couldn’t stop despite getting a hand to it.

Bazunu however went onto make a series of important saves throughout the match to keep Ireland in contention while Serbia tried hard to put the game to bed.

Ireland looked strong in the last 10 minutes of the game and got a major slice of luck in the 86^th minute. A long ball crossed into the box was followed by a massive scramble with Shane Duffy putting pressure on Serbia’s goalscorer Milinkovic-Savic.

The midfielder kicked the ball against the unlucky Milenkovic as it rebounded into the Serbia net. The crowd went wild with Ireland manager Stephen Kenny running down the sideline screaming to his players to go for the most unlikely of wins.

They did go for it with Duffy coming close with a great header that floated just wide and a great shot from 20 yards out from Andrew Omobamidele that brought a great save from Predrag Rajkovic. Serbia also had a great chance to win the match when Nemanja Gudelj hit the crossbar from a long-range free-kick.

The 1-1 final result leaves Stephen Kenny still waiting for his first competitive win in charge. However, the majority of the Irish fans in the stadium were behind him and the team, evidenced by a sign behind the south stand, which read “IN KENNY WE TRUST”. The task now for Kenny is to build a team capable of securing a spot at the European Championships in 2024 in Germany.

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