Christian Eriksen claims Republic of Ireland were 'too scared' to attack against Denmark
Monday 19 November 2018 23:13, UK
Christian Eriksen thought Republic of Ireland were "too scared" to attack against Denmark during their 0-0 draw in Copenhagen.
Ireland failed to score for the fourth game running in all competitions - the first time they have gone four games without scoring since May 1996 - as they ended their UEFA Nations League campaign with a disappointing draw in a game where Denmark created all the chances.
Nicolai Jorgensen struck a post after some comical defending by Richard Keogh, but Denmark were very wasteful with their 76 per cent possession and had just one shot on target from 26 attempts, while Ireland had no shots on target from just three attempts in total.
Eriksen scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win for Denmark in Dublin in last year's World Cup qualification play-off, and he thinks that result played a part in why Martin O'Neill's team were afraid to open up in this latest encounter.
"It was a difficult game to play," Eriksen said. "Ireland wasted a lot of time, they took their time on everything. They rarely went forward so it was difficult to break them down. We only had a few chances but the chances were big enough for us to score and to finish the game off - but we didn't. It was a lot of defending on their side and we were trying to attack against 11 players in their own half.
"They played like this in every game we've played. In the second game in Ireland they wanted to go forward but they knew what happened when they went forward so that's why they were too scared to go forward. That's something we've learned, that teams are scared to come here."
