"I said I'd do it": Celtic star addresses 'new role' as Ireland secure 20-year first to keep World Cup dreams alive
The Celtic star played a prominent role in his side’s famous win over Portugal.
Republic of Ireland kept their World Cup hopes alive with a shock win over Portugal - with Celtic defender Liam Scales playing a pivotal role in the 2-0 victory at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday night.
Two first-half goals from AZ Alkmaar striker Troy Parrott sealed a famous win in Dublin, while Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was shown a red card for the first time in his international career for an elbow on Scales’ defensive teammate Dara O’Shea.
The win means Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side now have a chance of grabbing an unexpected World Cup playoff spot that had looked out of reach after back-to-back defeats to Armenia and Portugal earlier in the campaign. A point behind Hungary in the Group F table, the Republic of Ireland will head to Budapest on Sunday knowing a win of any kind will seal second place in the group.
This was the home side’s first victory against Portugal in 20 years. The visitors had previously gone 11 unbeaten against Ireland. The visitors last defeat to Ireland came in a friendly in February 2005, when Andy Reid scored the only goal in a 1-0 win.
Named in the starting XI as Ireland fielded a back five against their star-studded opponents, Celtic centre-half Scales played in an unfamiliar position of left-back in the absence of Southampton’s Ryan Manning, and found himself involved in the game’s opening goal. Peeling away from his marker, the 27-year-old rose highest at the far post to nod the ball across the face of goal, where Parrott reacted the quickest to open the scoring on 17 minutes.
With their qualification hopes of the line, the Irish national team continued to attack Roberto Martinez’s side and went 2-0 up on the stroke of half-time when Parrott scored his second, as he cut inside of Ruben Neves and fired a drive beyond Diogo Costa to spark raucous scenes in the Irish capital.
One of the biggest cheers of the night came just after the hour mark, though, when five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo was shown the first red card of his Portugal career. Making his 226th appearance for the national team, the visibly frustrated Al-Nassr forward launched an elbow in the face of Ipswich Town captain O’Shea.
Initially shown a yellow card by referee Glenn Nyberg, the incident was reviewed by VAR officials and upgraded to a red card. The stunned 40-year-old was jeered as he left the field, and will now miss his side’s final qualifying game against Armenia on Sunday, where they require at least a draw to seal their place at the World Cup in 2026.
“It’s a great result,” Scales told RTE Sport. “A great performance, we were solid and took our chances, but we do know it’s only half-time. We need to go and get a result now in Hungary. It’s an amazing night, and the fans deserved it as much as we did it. We’ve been working on me getting free at the back post, and getting the ball back across all week in training. I hadn’t put one back into the right area - they almost took me off. But I said I'd do it on the day, luckily I did and Troy is almost in the right place at the right time, like a great striker.”
“I’d played it [left-back] maybe six months before I’d gone to Celtic. I knew I had in me, I have experience in that position, it’s just a bit tougher on the legs than what I’m used to, so I was cramping up a bit at the end. Everything that went in the box was headed away, we didn’t give them much. I feel like we had the better chances, and that came from being solid defensively. All the lads were brilliant.”
Former Celtic men Mikey Johnston and Adam Idah both came off the bench in the closing stages of the clash to see the game out, while in-form Hoops hitman Johnny Kenny remained an unused substitute alongside Hibs midfielder Jamie McGrath.
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