Ireland, Georgia play goalless draw

TBILISI: Republic of Ireland were forced to settle for a dour 0-0 draw against Georgia in Tbilisi as their bid to qualify for Euro 2020 suffered a setback on Saturday.

Mick McCarthy’s side couldn’t establish any momentum at the Boris Paichadze Arena and were left frustrated by wayward finishing from their few opportunities to break the deadlock. On the day their rugby union counterparts qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals, Ireland’s road to Euro 2020 is still in the balance. Unbeaten Ireland remain top of Group D after six games, but second placed Denmark are just three points behind with a game in hand, while Switzerland in third have played two fewer games and trail the leaders by four points. Ireland face Switzerland in Geneva on Tuesday and round off their qualifying campaign at home to Denmark next month.

“If somebody had said to me at the start (of qualifying) when we were playing Georgia we’d get four points from them, I would have taken that,” McCarthy said. Georgia boss Vladimir Weiss had described Ireland as playing like Riverdance Irish-American dance star Michael Flatley in the pre-match build-up. But there was precious little entertainment from either team in a gruelling war of attrition.