Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for elbowing Town skipper Dara O’Shea as a Republic of Ireland side also featuring Jack Taylor and Chieo Ogbene beat Portugal 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to keep their World Cup qualification hopes alive, ex-Blues loanee Troy Parrott netting both goals in the first half.

O’Shea, playing on the left of a back three and winning his 40th full cap, blocked an early Ronaldo free-kick as the visitors, who effectively needed a point to secure qualification, began on the front foot.

However, Ireland, who had already shown they were a threat on the counter-attack, went ahead in the 18th minute when one-time Town loanee Troy Parrott nodded home after a Taylor corner from the left had been headed back into the six-yard box from the far post.

Ogbene, who is on loan at Sheffield United for the season and was winning his 29th cap, came close to making it 2-0 in the 38th minute, taking the ball wide to the left, then back inside before hitting a shot across the keeper and off the post.

In the final scheduled minute of the half, O’Shea played a ball forward down the left for Parrott, who cut in and hit a low strike just inside the near post to make it 2-0 at half-time.

On the hour, the Portuguese were reduced to 10 men when a frustrated Ronaldo elbowed O’Shea as a cross came in from the left. Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg initially showed a yellow card but, after VAR invited him to take a second look, showed a red.

Taylor, who played a diligent, combative central midfield role while winning his ninth full cap, was replaced in the 68th minute.

Ogbene, whose forward running had caused the visitors problems throughout, was rested on 86 as Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side saw out the final minutes in relative comfort.

Ireland will now travel to Hungary, who won 1-0 in Armenia this evening, on Sunday for their final group game knowing a victory will secure what at one time had appeared a wholly unlikely second position in the group and place in the World Cup qualification play-offs.

Meanwhile, academy youngster Oliver Wilkinson, who joined the club from Barnsley last month, won his first England U17s cap as the Young Lions beat the US 5-2 in Dubai.

Central defender Wilkinson, 16, started and played the first 56 minutes before being replaced.

The England U17s next face the Ivory Coast on Saturday and then Australia on Tuesday.

Blues U21s forward Rio Oudnie-Morgan was left out of the Northern Ireland U21s squad for their European Championship qualifier against Latvia, which they won 1-0 in Belfast.

Elsewhere, Town striker Ali Al-Hamadi, who is on loan at Luton for the season, scored a 10th-minute goal as Iraq drew 1-1 with the UAE in Abu Dhabi in the first leg of their fifth stage of Asian World Cup qualification play-off this afternoon.

Al-Hamadi, who was winning his 16th cap with the goal his fourth at international level, was subbed just before half-time with a knock.

The teams meet again in Basra on Tuesday with the winner going through to an intercontinental play-off for a place in the finals.

Photo: Reuters

Gforce added 21:58 - Nov 13 Pleased for our Irish lads,congratulations, great performance and always nice to put Ronaldo in his place.
19

poet added 22:12 - Nov 13 Well done Ireland. Now in a good position to qualify. No surprises for me that Ronaldo showed his impetuous childish behaviour, usually does when he’s losing. That’s just one of the reasons why, for me, Lionel Messi was always number one.
18

Dissboyitfc added 06:50 - Nov 14 Never liked Ronaldo, so much ability yes will always resort to cheating! Well done Ireland and the Ipswich lads!
7

mathiemagic added 08:20 - Nov 14 Could not agree more with @poet - Messi wouldn't chuck his toys out of the pram like Ronaldo always has. Love the smirk from Nathan Collins !!
2

brian_a_mul added 09:09 - Nov 14 O Shea was masterful against the world class attack. His looped pass over the top to create second goal was magnificent. Taylor ran his absolute nuts off against Vitinha & the two Neves. A real number 6 performance and was a good outlet in midfield to receive the ball. He was shattered & taken off with Sundays game against Hangry in mind. Chio looks back to his best again, any chance we can get him back in Jan??

3

poet added 09:40 - Nov 14 Mathiemagic If you zoom in on Ronaldo’s bottom lip, you can almost see it pouting and quivering.
0

timbousa added 09:53 - Nov 14 I wanted to give a a shout-out for Ali Al-Hamadi for his goal for Iraq. I might be alone on this ! I always felt for him despite his scoring issues with Town. He gave the famous 120% but always seemed to put to much pressure on himself. He delivered last night under extreme circumstances. Good for him.
13

poet added 11:27 - Nov 14 Just watched the video, so after receiving his punishment for his juvenile behaviour he wanders around the pitch looking for sympathy like a scorned little boy. What a fool.
2

LimerickTractorBoy added 11:46 - Nov 14 Was there. Ipswich boys were exceptional all night. Can we swap McAteer for Ogbene in January please.
4

PortmanTerrorist added 12:24 - Nov 14 All great, but just want Taylor back in one piece please !
1

TimmyH added 14:15 - Nov 14 Considering how Ireland have been playing a very good result and performance but saying that you never know what you're going to get from Portugal (very hot and cold).
0

wischip added 16:08 - Nov 14 It's hard to believe Ronaldo is 40 years old. He acts like the spoilt child in a primary school football team who is good but is not a team player and wants to win a game by himself.
1

DifferentGravy added 18:01 - Nov 14 Before even mentioning the greatest ever players.......Cristian Ronaldo is not even the best Ronald.....El Phenomenon and Ronaldinho (little Ronald) are far superior in technical ability, skill and dribbling. El Phenomenon was the greatest dribbler of the ball ever (pushed very close by Messi) until a succession of unfortunate knee injuries. For the younger generation just watch youtube clips of him in his prime.....pure genius.....and thats at x1......not x32. No doubt Cristiano has been a decent footballer. A very good finisher and one of the best in the air. He has stayed incredibly fit and beyond the years of the vast majority of footballers. This has enabled him to continue scoring a lot of goals as he is playing a lot of games. But if anyone bothered to actually look deeper into those stats they would see that, in the two toughest competitions, nationally and internationally, being the Premiership and World Cup, he is 33rd on the all time scoring list(less that a goal every two games) in the premiership and 26th on the all time scoring list in the World cup (one goal every 3 games). Most of his goals came in Spain where, over the years, multiple players scoring a lot of goals and in the international qualifiers against lesser opposition. Has never won a top goalscorer award at an international tournament or a best player award. In fact, the one time Portugal did win the Euros......Ronaldo came off before they went on to win it. Cristiano never had the ability or skill to go round players (search youtube). Messi, Maradona and Pele are far better players. Cristiano not even in my top 10.

1

armchaircritic59 added 19:02 - Nov 14 Of course all the opinions on who are/were the greatest ever players is entirely subjective, including mine. You often hear Pele mentioned. I know for certain that there are quite number of people in Brazil of a certain age who attest that he was never even the greatest player produced by Brazil! I'm not really sure I'd even want to call " the worlds best " anyway. What I can say is, probably the two players I've got most enjoyment out of watching over my many decades (!), are Zinedine Zadane and Andres Iniesta. And putting my blue tinted specs on for a moment, for ITFC I would most definitely say, Frans Thijssen.

1

kpblues added 10:28 - Nov 15 Well done Dara for that gamesmanship Pulling his shirt and rolling over like you've been hit with a sledgehammer All part of todays modern game.
0

hyperbrit added 13:22 - Nov 15 I am starting to be concerned about some of the so called fans on this site slagging of O'Shea as a captain and this performance would seem to indicate that there is some possibility that playing at home is more intimidating than it should be. Playing at home should boost confidence not drain it. Town has just found it's away form at the right time going into arguably the hardest part of the season but the home fans sitting on their hands in home games are starting to be a problem for me.

0

hyperbrit added 03:01 - Nov 16 I am reminded of the saying "with friends like you who needs enemies" lol??
0

Blogs 297 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls