Irish held by Bulgarians

Bulgaria put a kink in the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of reaching the World Cup finals on Saturday with a 1-1 draw in their Group Eight encounter in Dublin.

With Italy cruising past Montenegro away, the Irish fell two points behind the world champions although they have a healthy 11 points from five matches.

The Irish got off to the ideal start with a goal on 36 seconds from Richard Dunne.

The big centreback’s diving header came after latching on to a John O’Shea flick from an attacking free kick on the left.

Bulgaria, seven points behind the Irish, opted for a positive approach and they came straight back at the Irish forcing a good save from Shay Given and two corners.

They continued to dominate possession with Dimitar Rangelov – playing as a lone striker in place of Dimitar Berbatov and and Valeri Bojinov – trying to latch on to slide rule passes from midfield.

It took until the 20th minute for Ireland to have another chance, Glenn Whelan’s 25-yard drive doing little to worry Dimitar Ivankov.

The midfielder’s volley on the half hour was even less threatening.

The Bulgarians continued to press trying to find room behind the Irish rearguard.

When Zizhko Milanov was booked for diving, the decision looked harsh. And after a long period of treatment he was substituted injured it suggested the fullback was hard done by.

The home side struggled to impose themselves, particularly Stephen Hunt – playing because of the late withdrawal of Damian Duff.

What few attacks Ireland had looked disjointed as they failed to put passes together in any part of the pitch.

So it was no surprise that Bulgaria’s most dangerous player in the opening exchanges, Dimitar Telkiyski, got behind the left hand side of Ireland’s defence to cross for Blagoy Georgiev whose firm shot from 15 yards was well saved by Given.

Stanislav Angelov had a similar chance minutes later but shot over.

Bulgaria’s dominance of possession continued in the second half but Ireland came closest in the early exchanges when a Kevin Doyle flick found Robbie Keane, whose close range shot was well saved.

McGeady had a chance moments later when Ivanov’s weak punch fell to him 10 yards out. But the ?keeper redeemed himself with a fine parry low to his right.

Then, just as Ireland finally began to look like the home side disaster struck.

A swinging ball deep into the right side of Ireland’s box was collected by Telkiyski, whose attempt to slide the ball across the front of the Irish goal saw Kevin Kilbane stab the ball into his own net.

Ireland responded with Hunt and McGeady coming into the equation for the first time and Keane flashing a curling shot from a tight angle wide.

Both teams made efforts to win the game in the closing stages and again it was Ireland who looked most like scoring as they finally put a sequence of possession together in the final 10 minutes.

But Doyle had the only real chance with a header from point-blank range going straight into the arms of Ivankov after an excellent cross from the battling Keith Andrews.

This result is Bulgaria’s fourth draw from as many games in the group and leaves Ireland safely ahead with a crucial tie against Italy in Bari on Wednesday.

A point from that game would go some way to allaying Irish disappointment.

Bulgaria will expect their first victory of the campaign at home to Cyprus on the same day.