World Cup play-offs: Christian Eriksen scores a hat-trick as Denmark crush Ireland

Republic of Ireland 1 Denmark 5 (Denmark win 5-1 on aggregate)

A hat-trick from Denmark’s Christian Eriksen ended Ireland’s hopes of booking their place in the 2018 World Cup as they suffered a 5-1 thrashing in Dublin last night.

Looking to succeed where Northern Ireland had failed on Sunday, the Republic were quietly confident going into the second leg of qualifiers for next summer’s tournament in Russia, having held the Danes to a goalless draw in last week’s encounter.

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Their confidence increased when Shane Duffy hit the back of the net in just six minutes, after the Danes failed to deal with a free-kick. However, Daryl Murphy and James McClean both squandered opportunities to increase their lead and secure the match.

A disastrous three-minute spell in the first-half then saw the visitors score twice to silence the Dublin crowd. First, Cyrus Christie put the ball into his own net on the half-hour mark and then, Eriksen scored the first of his three goals with a glorious strike.

Tottenham’s midfielder got his second on 63 minutes and completed his hat-trick ten minutes later, demolishing Ireland’s hopes of appearing in their first World Cup since 2002.

The humiliation was completed on the stroke of full-time, when former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner stroked home a penalty after being brought down.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Eriksen, who scored 11 goals overall this qualifying campaign. “It’s not often I score any hat-trick so of course it is incredible… We’ve been fighting for so long to get to the World Cup. We are very much looking forward to it.”

Denmark failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup so the success in Dublin was all the sweeter for coach Age Hareide.

“When we went 1-0 behind, we didn’t get stressed,” he said. “I’m very pleased for the team, this is a difficult place to play football - they’re compact and good defensively, so scoring five against Ireland does not happen very often.”

Ireland manager Martin O’Neill told reporters he had no regrets with his half-time gamble of withdrawing the more defensive-minded David Meyler and Harry Arter and replacing them with the attacking pair of Aiden McGeady and Wes Hoolahan.

“That’s the name of the game, we have to go for it,” he said. “There is no point in dying wondering. We had to get two goals back.”

Saying Denmark “deserved” their victory, he added: “We were well beaten in the end. The two goals we conceded within a couple of minutes knocked us. We had to chase the game and Denmark took advantage.”