Ireland shows fight but loses to Russia

Russia raced to a three-goal lead Friday before surviving a late fightback from Ireland to earn a 3-2 win in a European Championship qualifier.

Ireland remained narrowly atop Group B ahead of second-place Russia. Both have six points from three matches, but the Irish have scored six goals to Russia's five.

"We came to Dublin determined not to lose," Russia coach Dick Advocaat said. "Winning tonight was a bonus. But the Irish showed you can never count them out."

Ireland frantically searched for an equalizer in the final 10 minutes, repeatedly lobbing the ball into the Russian penalty area but without success."

"Maybe we could have scored a third goal. Maybe, maybe. Life is not about maybes," Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni said

Russia took the lead in the 10th minute when a bicycle-kick cross from Sergei Ignashevich found striker Alexander Kerzhakov on the edge of the six-yard box. His sliding left-footed strike to the near post proved too quick for Ireland goalie Shay Given to react.

Alan Dzagoev doubled Russia's lead in the 28th with another short-range strike created by a deft Kerzhakov move amid slack Irish defending.

And Russia's victory seemed inevitable when Roman Shirokov fired a speculative long-range shot in the 50th that sent Given to his right - and left the goalkeeper helpless when the ball caught the foot of defender Richard Dunne and caromed barely past the left post.

The Irish finally came to life when Robbie Keane earned a 72nd-minute penalty, falling after defender Yuri Zhirkov clipped his heels. Keane, Ireland's all-time leading scorer, stagger-stepped goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev into diving to his right, then shot low the other way to give Ireland hope.

Six minutes later, Given lobbed a free kick from beyond the halfway line into the Russian box. Dunne leaped high to head the ball to Aiden McGeady, whose shot was punched by Akinfeev to the edge of the penalty area - straight to substitute midfielder Shane Long.

Long fought off one defender, then poked a shot off another lunging defender into the left corner of the net.

That unleashed a furious but futile spell from the hosts, who had lost only three of their previous 40 competitive matches at home.

Russia's Pabel Pogrebnyak should have put the result beyond reach in the 92nd minute, but he somehow managed to kick wide a pinpoint cross from Andrey Arshavin directly in front of the Irish goal.

The match ended with the refusal of Ireland's 95th-minute penalty appeal as defender Sean St. Ledger, straining to get his head on yet another lobbed ball into the box, appeared to be pulled down.

But Dunne said Russia demonstrated superior attacking flair and earned the victory.

"We could have been four or five (goals) down before we decided to start playing. We couldn't do anything in the first half. Even in the second we couldn't close them down," Dunne said. "We probably didn't deserve a draw. We seemed to have one game plan and that was go long. When that didn't work, we were left wide open."

Ireland next plays third-place Slovakia away Tuesday, while the Russians travel to fifth-place Macedonia.

Lineups:

Ireland: Shay Given; John O'Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St. Ledger, Kevin Kilbane; Liam Lawrence (Shane Long, 62), Glenn Whelan (Darron Gibson, 66), Paul Green, Aiden McGeady; Kevin Doyle (Keith Fahey, 71), Robbie Keane.

Russia: Igor Akinfeev; Aleksandr Anyukov, Vasili Berezutski, Sergei Ignashevich, Yuri Zhirkov; Roman Shirokov, Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov (Igor Semshov, 68), Andrey Arshavin; Alan Dzagoev (Aleksei Berezutski, 84), Alexander Kerzhakov (Pabel Pogrebnyak, 80).