While Andy Robertson lamented on a performance that was “nowhere near good enough,” his Liverpool teammate Caoimhin Kelleher enjoyed the complete opposite set of emotions as the two went head to head.
It’s nearly mid-June and internationals are still on the go, believe it or not.
And on Saturday the latest round of Nations League fixtures continued, and it saw Kelleher’s Ireland host Robertson’s Scotland in Dublin – with both starting, and playing the full 90, for their respective sides.
Kelleher’s place in the XI was his fifth in succession for Ireland with preferred No. 1 Gavin Bazunu injured.
Robertson, meanwhile, was selected for what was his 58th game of the season combined for club and country.
It’s one he’ll be eager to forget, too, with Ireland running out convincing 3-0 winners as Alan Browne, Michael Obafemi and Troy Parrott all found the net inside 51 minutes.
“We’ve let the manager down, that’s what’s so disappointing for us. Every one of us lost our individual battles,” Robertson said after the match.
“The fans behind the goal, booing us off were completely correct. That performance is nowhere near good enough in a Scotland jersey.”
There would be no meaningful response from Scotland as soon as Ireland took the momentum of the fixture, despite their early intent to press and pressure, with Kelleher enjoying “quite an easy afternoon” in the end.
“We defended brilliantly, the back three in front of me were amazing, they won every header, blocks, it was quite an easy afternoon for me, and credit must go to the defenders in front of me who were brilliant,” Kelleher told reporters.
The clean sheet for Kelleher was his fourth for his country in what was his seventh cap, and he’ll hope to have one more runout on Tuesday when Ireland meets Ukraine in their final game of the summer.
That’s right, there is still one more round of fixtures to go and Robertson could yet play another match with Armenia waiting in just two days’ time for Scotland.
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