John O’Shea signed off his interim stint in charge of Ireland with a 3-0 defeat against Portugal at the Aveiro Municipal Stadium on Tuesday night. A probing Portuguese side had their first glimpse of goal after 13 mintues as Rafael Leao slid Bruno Fernandes through, but in attempting to round Caoimhin Kelleher the Manchester United man ran it too far wide. The home fans were cheering moments later as Joao Felix smashed the ball home from a Cristiano Ronaldo layoff, but the play was called back after the latter had wandered yards offside in the build-up.
The chances continued to come for the home side and not long after being denied by the feet of Kelleher, Felix was more clinical with his next sight of goal to break the deadlock in the 19th minute. A short corner routine caught Ireland napping and Felix was able to receive the ball in the box and get turned onto his left foot before driving a low effort into the bottom corner beyond Kelleher. Ireland soon had another scare as a free kick from Ronaldo glanced off the head of Adam Idah in the wall before clipping the post and spilling back into the box.
Seamus Coleman did enough to thwart Leao on the rebound. The visitors had glimmers of goal approaching the final 10 minutes of the half, with Idah’s effort into the side netting the closest they came after a good move involving Will Smallbone and Coleman down the right. But they went in trailing by one after an unforgiving first half in the Portuguese heat.
Just four minutes.
