Ireland celebrate 100 year anniversary with comfortable win over Qatar

Come on you Boys in Blue! Ireland commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the FAI by returning to the blue kits they wore first back in 1921. Photo credit: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)

Callum Robinson’s hat-trick helped the Republic of Ireland to a 4-0 victory against Qatar in the friendly match in Dublin.

Robinson continued with his fine form from the previous weekend when he scored two in Ireland’s 3-0 win over Azerbaijan. The forward broke the deadlock in the fourth minute as his shot from 20 yards flew into the top corner to give his side the lead.

The West Brom striker got his second just nine minutes later from the penalty spot, keeping his cool and slotting it away like a man that had already scored three goals in two games.

Qatar looked unable to put up with the pace and physical demands from the Irish players as Robinson completed his hat-trick shortly after half-time following a great pass from the impressive Jeff Hendrick. The forward becomes the first player for Ireland to score a hat-trick since 2014 and only the ninth player ever to do so.

Shane Duffy completed the scoring for Ireland in the 59th minute with a fine header to make it 4-0 as the defender looks to be back to his very best after a dip in form last season following his spell in Scotland with Celtic.

Ireland can no longer qualify for the World Cup next year in Qatar but the performance and result are promising for under-pressure manager Stephen Kenny who achieved his first competitive win against Azerbaijan last weekend.

His side has now only once in their last eight games which was a narrow 2-1 away defeat to Portugal following two late goals from Cristiano Ronaldo.

That pressure will be further decreased if Kenny can leapfrog minnows Luxembourg, who are only one point above them in the World Cup qualifying group, to finish third behind Serbia and Portugal in the remaining two matches.

Qatar meanwhile are on a poor run having also lost heavily to Serbia and Portugal recently in their preparations to host the World Cup in just over a year’s time.

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