Robbie Keane double eases Republic of Ireland past 10-man Georgia

Posted Monday, June 03, 2013 by theguardian.com

Rep of Ireland 4 Richard Keogh 42, Simon Cox 48, Robbie Keane 77, Robbie Keane 88
Georgia 0

Robbie Keane scored his 55th and 56th international goals to
seal a comfortable Ireland victory over Georgia

Robbie Keane marked his record-equalling 125th appearance for the Republic of Ireland with two goals to see off 10-man Georgia. The 32-year-old came off the bench to draw level with the goalkeeper Shay Given and will go top of the list if he leads Ireland in their World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands on Friday.

Keane scored his 55th international goal from point-blank range and took his tally to 56 near the end to seal a comfortable victory, with Georgia labouring after the goalkeeper Giorgi Loria's 20th-minute dismissal.

"If you asked me 10 years ago would I get this many caps, I'd say you were crazy," Keane said. "I'm obviously delighted and it's something I can look back on in years to come but at the moment I just hope to get a few more."

Shane Long captained the side for the first time as he is suspended for Friday's qualifier and is instead heading off to get married. "It's an unbelievable honour," he said. "At half-time I offered Robbie the band but he said, 'No, it's your night, you keep it'. I'm delighted, it's a big honour and it's nice to get a win. It would have been nice to get a goal as well but that's the way it goes."

The Derby defender Richard Keogh had opened the scoring three minutes before the interval with his first senior international goal and the Nottingham Forest striker Simon Cox extended the home side's lead three minutes after the restart following good work by James McClean.

Ireland were aided by the premature departure of Loria, who raced from his goal and upending Long to prompt the Romanian referee, Sebastian Coltescu, to produce a red card. "I hit it past him and the clash was inevitable," Long said. "I don't think he meant any malice but the rules of the game are the rules of the game." Keane said: "It was a shame and it killed the tempo of the game."