Rep of Ireland 0-0 Bulgaria: Hosts avoid Nations League relegation but fail to score again
- Published
The Republic have now gone 11 hours without scoring a goal
The Republic of Ireland avoided relegation from Nations League B as they laboured to a drab scoreless draw with Bulgaria in Dublin.
The Republic finish the campaign in third behind Wales and Finland with Bulgaria dropping down a tier.
Ronan Curtis missed the home side's clearest chance while Robbie Brady struck the bar from distance.
The stalemate leaves Stephen Kenny's side without a win after eight matches in charge of the Republic.
The Irish have now gone seven games without a goal and have failed to win any of their last 11 competitive outings stretching back to their 2-0 success over Gibraltar in June 2019.
Republic disjointed after withdrawals
Kenny's preparations for the game were impacted when Matt Doherty and James McClean both returned positive coronavirus tests following the defeat by Wales on Sunday, just two days after Alan Browne tested positive having featured in the friendly loss to England.
With several players already unavailable because of injury or coronavirus issues, the Republic boss was without 14 of the 26-man squad he originally named for this month's triple-header, forcing him to hand a debut to Ryan Manning and full competitive bows to Jason Knight and Ronan Curtis.
And the patched-up nature of the squad showed in a disjointed performance that lacked the progressive, free-flowing movement of the ball Kenny wants to implement, with the hosts guilty of sloppy passing in the first half.
Derby County midfielder Jason Knight made his first competitive start in Dublin
In the space of five minutes, Conor Hourihane spared Shane Duffy's blushes after the defender's errant pass across the defence before Knight's under-hit pass to Duffy almost gifted a chance to Dimitar Iliev.
The Republic were fortunate, too, when Galin Ivanov ran off Manning only for his heavy touch to allow Darren Randolph to gather.
Centre-back Kristian Dimitrov also saw his header land on the roof of Randolph's net after beating Duffy in the air from a Spas Delev corner.
More chances go begging for goal-shy Republic
Another feature of the Kenny era has been a failure to convert chances and their lack of confidence was again evident as Collins spurned the Republic's clearest sighting of Martin Lukov's goal in the first half, the Luton Town striker heading over following impressive work by Daryl Horgan down the right flank.
Collins - whose only international goal came in a friendly win over Bulgaria last year - missed two further chances following the break, heading Dara O'Shea's cross over the bar before hooking a first-time volley into the side-netting.
But the Republic's clearest opportunity to end their goal drought fell to Curtis after 55 minutes, only for the Portsmouth forward to hastily stab his effort over the bar after a brilliant driving run and pass from Knight.
Moments later, Randolph almost gifted a goal to Bulgaria when he momentarily lost control of the ball, but he managed to scramble it clear before Bozhidar Kraev could poke the ball home.
Bulgaria continued to threaten from set-pieces with Dimitrov and Kraev both failing to find the back of the net after being left by the Irish defence, before Brady saw his left-footed piledriver cannon back off the crossbar.
Kenny attempted to inject fresh impetus with the introductions of attack-minded quartet Josh Cullen, Jack Byrne, Sean Maguire and Troy Parrott, but their arrivals failed to spark the Boys in Green into life, prolonging the Republic's quest for a goal.
No lack of confidence up front - Collins
Republic of Ireland striker James Collins, speaking to Sky Sports:
"We wanted to win the game and had the better chances to do that, but we just couldn't break them down, but on a positive note we haven't been relegated so that's a bit of good news.
"Not really [sensing a lack of confidence up front], we work hard on it in training, do finishing drills and it's been good, but when we get to games, it's not quite there.
"It's down to me, I should have had a couple tonight, so I hold my hands up but it just wasn't to be so we go away now and come back in March to start fresh."