It’s a whole 22 years since John O’Shea was tasked with marking a Sporting Lisbon teenager in a preseason friendly on the opening night of the new Estádio José Alvalade. His grin says ‘not this again’ when he’s reminded of the game, having already had the memory dredged up last year when Portugal were the opposition during his interim spell as Republic of Ireland manager.
“I can’t remember it. Amnesia,” says O’Shea with a smile, before it all comes rushing back.
“The jet-lag game,” he says – jet lag being his excuse after he was given a torrid evening by one Cristiano Ronaldo – a performance, as the legend goes, that persuaded Alex Ferguson to sign the then 18-year-old.
O’Shea has long since argued that the story of his torment that night has grown in the telling. “A lot of exaggeration, you know these podcasts this day and age – a lot of exaggerations.”
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But? “He didn’t turn out a bad player, did he?”
The best he ever played with? “Oh, what a question that is. He’s been statistically the best, hasn’t he? Most gifted? He’d probably just edge it, but there are a few lads chasing him very close.”
On being told Ronaldo has just been declared football’s first billionaire player, O’Shea shakes his head and laughs. “He’s done okay for himself,” he says.
But his focus isn’t on Ronaldo’s bank account, it’s on his successors in the Irish shirt containing him on the assistant manager’s return to the Estádio José Alvalade for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier. “And also all the other talent that Portugal possess,” he says.
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Quite an array of talent too. The squad Roberto Martinez named for the Irish game and the one against Hungary the following Tuesday reads a little like a who’s who of international football. Vitinha, Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Neves, Goncalo Ramos, Pedro Neto, Rafael Leao, and so on. Ireland would struggle to beat their bench, never mind their first-choice 11.
O’Shea had, though, some encouraging news from training at Abbotstown, with Evan Ferguson back in action after sitting out Monday and Tuesday’s sessions with an ankle problem. Troy Parrott took part too having returned from a knee injury for AZ Alkmaar last weekend.
Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson had suggested that Parrott would only be considered for the Armenia game next Tuesday, but O’Shea hinted that he could feature against Portugal. “There’s every chance,” he said, “but you also have to respect the kind of injury he had. We look after the player first and foremost and then make that decision closer to kick-off.
“But what we’re seeing is very positive, the strength and the power and the speed that he has. The last few years he’s been doing everything right on and off the pitch to be the best professional he can be. That’s led to him possibly getting back that bit quicker from an injury that could have kept him out for longer. So, [it’s] brilliant to see. He was getting the rewards before the injury, so anyone who has that kind of attacking talent is going to be very important for us.”
O’Shea waves away any notion that, given the presumption Portugal will top the group, the game against Armenia is the more important one if there is to be any hope of taking the runners-up spot.
“We have to have a better window than the last one, it’s as simple as that. First and foremost, we have to make sure we put in a more Irish performance, I think that’s the key aspect for us when we play Portugal.”
It could be argued, not least in light of that defeat in Armenia, that an “Irish performance” is the last thing this team needs to produce, but O’Shea stressed the necessity for “togetherness”, discipline and concentration, with some fire in the belly thrown in.
“We weren’t expecting it,” he says of the Armenia result. “It was obviously a bit of a shock to the system, everyone was absolutely gutted, and that’s where we have to show a reaction now. We need to have that sense of sticking together, we have to have that resilience about us. There are going to be tough moments in Portugal, every facet of our game is going to be tested, so we have to be ready for it.”
“There are lots of moments in Ireland’s football history that we can lean on, but we also have to get the lads writing their own chapters of history too. The main thing would be believing in yourself, believing in your teammates and backing it up on the pitch. We need a much more Irish performance.”
