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AS IT HAPPENED

As it happened: Ireland v Croatia

Revisit our minute-by-minute coverage live from the Aviva stadium, as Ireland and Croatia cancelled each other out.

Send us your thoughts and comments on this evening’s action. E-mailpaul@thescore.ie, tweet us@thescore_iefind us on Facebook, or leave a comment below.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Ireland v Croatia.

Here are the teams: Ireland: Given, Kelly, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward; Duff, Whelan, Gibson, Hunt; Long, Keane. Croatia: Pletikosa, Strinic, Simunic, Lovren, Corluka, Vukojevic, Modric, Srna, Mandzukic, Kranjcar, Eduardo.

I can see a lot of empty seats. Not surprising for a friendly though.

There’s just been a respectfully observed moment of silence to mark the passing of Tom Hand, a member of FAI Domestic Council.

Right, the game is underway.

Despite the low attendance, there’s a pretty good atmosphere and there’s even a few Croatian fans who are in fine voice. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Fairly scrappy opening so far, not much between the two sides.

Croatia are currently enjoying most of the possession, but Ireland, as you’d expect from a Trapattoni side, are proving hard to break down.

In other news, Northern Ireland have just gone a goal up against the Faroe Islands after 5 minutes, with Aaron Hughes on target.

Shane Long has just overhit a cross, summing up the lack of any real attacking edge from either side thus far.

Shane Long crosses to give Glenn  Whelan a decent sight of goal, however the Stoke man’s touch lets him down. Still nice to see that Ireland’s central midfielders are willing to get themselves in forward positions.

Shout for a penalty there. Glenn Whelan appeared to be all over the Croatian player as a corner came in, however the referee ignores it. Ireland were lucky there.

Poor pass from Stephen Ward gives Croatia a chance to break, however the attack again comes to nothing, with a wayward shot from Vedran Corluka.

To sum up thus far, Croatia are clearly the technically superior side, but they don’t look capable of breaking down the Irish defence at the moment.

Better from Ireland, as they start to string a few passes together, but Stephen Hunt dwells on the ball and loses it eventually.

Cross from Duff and Long’s header is comfortably saved by Pletikosa. It at least gives the crowd something to get excited about.

Robbie Keane almost latches onto a dodgy Croatian backpass. For all their possession, Croatia look error prone.

Another hopeful shot is blazed over the bar by Kranjcar. The first sign of Croatia’s frustration perhaps?

Ireland clearly have set their stall out to defend and are waiting for a Croatian mistake rather than taking the game to their opponents.

Ireland again get themselves in a decent attacking position, but Stephen Hunt’s cross is disappointing and goes straight into the keeper’s arms.

Stephen Ward makes a good clearance following a break and cross from the left wing by Ivan Strinic.

Shane Long beats the off-side trap for the second time tonight and earns Ireland a corner, which St Ledger then heads well over. He just didn’t seem to anticipate the ball coming to him.

A cross down the Croatian right wing picks out Kranjcar, but his shot goes well over.

Ireland’s strikers almost never put pressure on Croatia’s defenders when they have the ball. Jack Charlton would be going mad if he was watching this. Ireland need to put their opponents under more pressure when not in possession.

Duff tries to wriggle away from Corluka, however the Spurs man deals with the situation well and clears the danger.

A Stephen Hunt free-kick in a promising position is again dealt with well by the opposition defence. You get the feeling set-pieces may be Ireland’s best chance of a goal tonight.

Robbie Keane goes past one player, before his curling shot is saved comfortably by Pletikosa.

Duff’s shot is deflected away for a corner. Last chance of the half…

Again St Ledger is the target, but his glancing header is well wide.

HALF-TIME: IRELAND 0-0 CROATIA

Not the most entertaining of games so far, but then again, friendlies rarely are.

It’s been pretty much a typical Irish performance (under Giovanni Trapattoni anway) so far, very few mistakes but not pleasing on the eye.

Still, there were promising signs as the half wore on. Croatia had less possession and looked a bit deflated due to their inability to break down the Irish defence

Ireland also had the occasional half chance – more than Croatia can boast at least. However, the visitors probably should have had a penalty, as Whelan was all over his marker for that Croatia corner earlier and almost took the jersey off his back.

Some lad called Dave has just won a crossbar challenge as part of the half-time festivities here at the Aviva. He seems quite chuffed with himself too, describing it in the post-shot interview as “the best moment of my life”.

Ivica Olic has replaced Eduardo in the only half-time change. We’re underway again…

Croatia begin the second half as they started the first – with a long period of possession football.

The boos ring out as Stephen Kelly is harshly adjudged to have fouled Strinic just outside Croatia’s box.

Great tackle from Stephen Ward down the Croatian right-wing. The Wolves player is one of the few men to stand out in the Irish side so far.

Odnjen Vukojevic (glad I don’t have to pronounce that) is booked for clipping Robbie Keane’s ankles near the centre circle.

That could have had the fans off their feet! The two Tottenham men combine as Corluka crosses for Modric, whose rather awkward attempted bicycle kick goes well wide.

Darron Gibson is the latest player to receive a booking – and rightly so. His rash challenge provokes the Croatian players into surrounding the referee to voice their protests.

Dejan Lovren is worringly left unmarked at the far post from the resulting free-kick, but his attempted side-foot shot is poorly executed. Don’t think either goalkeeper has been tested yet.

Mario Mandzukic has shot that rebounds off Stephen Hunt and comes back to him, but again his wasteful effort fails to trouble Given, who might as well have had the evening off by the looks of things.

Ireland’s attack has been pretty poor so far. On the few occasions they’ve gotten the chance to hit Croatia on the break, their attack always runs out of steam fairly quickly. Stephen Hunt is the latest offender, overrunning the ball in a good position. Tellingly, Hunt is swiftly replaced by Andy Keogh. Kranjcar is also subbed for Ilicevic.

Nasty clash of heads between St Ledger and Mandzukic. The Irish man appears to have come off worst and is currently receiving treatment.

Sorry, amid all the activity, I seem to have not noticed Westwood replacing Given in addition to Keogh coming on. It’ll certainly go down as one of the easiest games the Aston Villa man has had.

After Duff’s free-kick is not properly cleared by Croatia’s defence, St Ledger’s cross for Dunne is headed narrowly wide by the Villa defender.

More substitutions: O’Dea for Whelan and Kalinic for Mandzukic.

Another Croatia substitution: Lovren comes off for Sime Vrsaljko.

Long’s cross again is woefully overhit. The new-West Brom man has had better evenings than tonight.

I would say the substitutions have taken the sting out of the game, but there was never much sting in it to begin with.

Ten minutes remaining. This has 0-0 written all over it.

Another corner for Ireland is easily cleared. Ireland’s set pieces need to be better for the Euro qualifiers, as they arguably represent our best chance of scoring.

Not a bad effort from Srna, whose cross-shot has Westwood beaten, but goes narrowly wide.

More Irish substitutions: Simon Cox for Long and Keith Treacy for Duff.

Substitute Kalinic’s shot just outside the box barely tests Westwood, who saves comfortably. Both sides have simply lacked attacking threat.

Tomislav Dujmovic replaces Odnjen Vukojevic as the games begins to peter out.

Keith Treacy bursts forward down the left wing, but finds himself short of options and his cross is easily caught by the goalkeeper.

3 minutes of added time is announced, as portions of this rather sparse crowd begin to exit the stadium.

Simon Cox is unceremoniously dumped to the ground by the Croatia defender, the resulting free-kick is easily cleared and the final whistle is blown.

FULL TIME: IRELAND 0-0 CROATIA

He may be a tactical genius, but Giovanni Trapattoni is fast on his way to turning Ireland into the most boring side in international football… There, I said it! Still, if it gets us into the Euros, I won’t be complaining.

So, to sum up, not a game that will last long in the Irish supporters’ memories. Thanks as ever though for your comments and for reading. Goodnight all!

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