John O’Shea reckons Scotland needed the Luck of the Irish to beat the Republic.
Sean Maloney’s sweet strike for the Dark Blues was enough to see off Ireland. But Sunderland defender O’Shea insisted Maloney was LUCKY to find the net. And thanks to the topsy-turvy nature of the group so far, he believes the battle to reach the Finals in France will go the full distance.
He said: “I don’t think a win for us would have put Scotland out of it because it’s so tight between the teams. It’s going to right down to the wire, that’s for sure.
“There wasn’t much between the teams, and when you concede from a set-piece it’s doubly frustrating. We nearly got one back near the end, but Scotland held out.
“It’s very disappointing and frustrating to lose the game like that. You see so many games now which are settled by set-pieces, and I think we’d dealt with everything Scotland had thrown at us up to that point.
“But they got a bit of luck.I think it went through someone’s legs and one of the lads (Aiden McGeady) came off the post.”
Having started his career at Manchester United before moving to Sunderland, O’Shea has experienced two of English football’s most-heated derby clashes. He believes Friday night’s clash had more in common with them than with a typical European Championship qualifier.
“It was a derby occasion and it felt like that,” he admitted. “When we’re playing Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales or England, it’s always the same. They have that derby feeling to it.
“There were tackles flying in, but I think the ref did okay. It was a frantic game, and it was always going to be like that because there’s very little between the teams.
“After these four games, we would have wanted eight points. But we have seven and it’s all there to play for.”
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