Football: Irish can benefit from local rivalries

IF DIPLOMACY is the continuation of war by other means, sport can sometimes occupy the same role; better at least that Balkan hostilities should be released in the stadiums of Belgrade Zagreb and Skopje than the killing fields of Kosovo. The footballing implications of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Macedonia being grouped together in one European Championship section are that there will be a number of volatile and unpredictable encounters between them, which ought to work in favour of the group's other serious contenders, the Republic of Ireland.

That was one of several consolations to be drawn from Ireland's unlucky 1-0 defeat on Wednesday away to Yugoslavia in a match delayed by four weeks because of the political situation in the region. It was the Yugoslavs' opening game and, once they achieve what ought to be the formality of a second victory, in Malta next February, four teams will be joint leaders on six points each.

Macedonia, the least fancied of the quartet and Ireland's next opponents, could hold the key to the eventual outcome. They have already pushed Croatia unexpectedly hard in the first of the group's local derbies, losing only 3-2. As the Irish manager, Mick McCarthy, put it: "Our result in Macedonia will be important. The teams that go to Macedonia and get three points will have a much better chance of qualifying."

It is uncomfortably fresh in Irish minds that their hopes in the last World Cup were undermined by a 3-2 defeat there, the game being decided by two debatable penalties to the home side. On Wednesday, two similar decisions went against them, one before and one after simultaneous errors by the defenders Gary Breen and Steve Staunton had allowed Predrag Mijatovic to lift the home crowd's brooding depression.

Alongside him, Savo Milosevic had been his familiar unconvincing self, the attack as a whole only threatening after Darko Kovacevic came on to allow a broader front in place of the ineffectual Dragan Stojkovic, now 33 and playing in the J-League in Japan.

Once the goal had gone in, a containing 4-5-1 system, although a vehicle for some impressively controlled passing and movement, with Roy Keane at its heart, was no longer sufficient. Tony Cascarino and David Connolly came on, the former unable to claim the goal he needed to equal Frank Stapleton's national scoring record of 20.

Stapleton, working at the stadium for TV3 - who have pulled off a coup by winning television rights to the Republic's away matches from the state broadcaster RTE - felt from watching numerous replays that Ireland deserved one penalty, when Jason McAteer was caught by the advancing goalkeeper, but not a second. Those decisions nevertheless led to a collective sense of grievance among the Irish that McCarthy, although sanguine about them himself, may be able to use to good effect in future.

Speaking at a bleary-eyed news conference at Dublin Airport in the early hours of Thursday morning (the journey home had been delayed because the authorities in Belgrade suddenly demanded an extra $30 [pounds 18] tax on each passenger), McCarthy said: "Refereeing decisions apart, we could have beaten them. I think they were quite happy to hang on at the end of it. In all three games so far we've played well, and I enjoyed watching it."

McCarthy, who was particularly pleased with Keane and the Blackburn teenager Damien Duff, turned to Yorkshire pragmatism rather than Celtic romance for his final word. "We've played very well, but have been beaten. I wish we'd played worse and won," he admitted.