Ireland 1 – 1 Costa Rica

The Republic of Ireland were held to a 1-1 draw against a ten man Costa Rica side in the PPL Stadium, Philadelphia.

With Shane Duffy making his debut at centre half alongside Richard Keogh and Stephen Kelly and Marc Wilson playing at right and left back Martin O’Neill was true to his word in changing his starting XI almost entirely compared to the last match against Italy in Craven Cottage.

Kevin Doyle started up front alongside Robbie Keane and it was Doyle who got Ireland’s only goal in the 18th minute when he got on the end of a well delivered cross from Marc Wilson to steer his effort past the outstretched Navas in the Costa Rican goal.

Doyle was again at the centre of the action when Gonzalez was initially shown a yellow card for an elbow which he then decided to change to a red card, perhaps after seeing the blood pouring from the left side of Doyle’s head.

Shortly before half time, Marc Wilson felt his hamstring tighten and had to be substituted at left back by an out of position James McClean. Costa Rica came out fighting in the second half and despite their numerical disadvantage actually played much better than they had in the opening 45 minutes.

Campbell, Urena and Ruiz all combined to give Ireland a torrid time with Campbell making plenty of penetrating runs down the right and cutting inside to keep Richard Keogh and Shane Duffy very busy.

Ireland conceded a penalty in the 63rd minute when Campbell played a well-timed through ball to Urena who was taken down in the box by David Forde. Borges made no mistake from the spot blasting it high and down the middle to draw the game level.

Despite the pressure, Ireland still showed the ability to counter attack and just a few minutes later, Mora made a clumsy challenge on Stephen Quinn for an Irish penalty. Robbie Keane stepped up and missed only his second ever penalty in a green jersey with a fine save from Pemberton in goal.

Costa Rica continued to press high with the Irish defence tested on a number of occasions and Campbell was unlucky not to make it 2-1 with a fine shot across goal that David Forde managed to parry away from danger.

In the dying minutes of the game Ireland rallied but despite shots on target from Long, McGeady and Cox the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Martin O’Neill now turns his attention to Portugal who face Ireland at the Met Life Stadium in New Jersey on Tuesday.

IRELAND: David Forde, Marc Wilson (McClean 40), Richard Keogh, Shane Duffy, Stephen Kelly, Glenn Whelan, Paul Green (Jeff Hendrick 65), Anthony Pilkington (Aiden McGeady 65), Stephen Quinn (Simon Cox 84), Robbie Keane (Wes Hoolahan 84), Kevin Doyle (Shane Long 70).

COSTA RICA: Keylor Navas (Patrick Pemberton 45), Heiner Mora, Giancarlo Gonzalez, Oscar Duarte, Michael Umana, Junior Diaz, Marco Urena (Randall Brenes 77), Joel Campbell (Diego Calvo 86), Jose Miguel Cubero, Celso Borges, Bryan Ruiz (Bolanos 75).