REPUBLIC of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny says they can’t afford to obsess over the danger Cristiano Ronaldo poses in Wednesday night’s 2022 World Cup qualifier in Faro.
Ronaldo, who re-joined English giants Manchester United in shock move from Juventus last Friday, will also be trying to break the international goals record against the Irish on the Algarve.
The mercurial striker currently sits on an incredible 109 international goals in 179 appearances and is tied with former Iran great Ali Daei.
Still going strong at 36, the Portugal legend finished joint top scorer at the Euro 2020 finals with five goals alongside Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick and hopes to guide his country to next summer’s World Cup finals in Qatar.
But Kenny feels their illustrious hosts have a number of different scoring options rather than just Ronaldo.
“Listen, obviously to score that amount of goals is just incredible at international level,” said the Ireland manager.
“But from our point of view we can't just focus on him because they have got a lot of other good players who score goals regularly, so I think we've got to be very well organised defensively, there's no doubt about that, and we're going to have to carry an attacking threat.
"You can't go to Portugal and defend for 90 minutes and I think we have to go and be positive in our approach and definitely it's a challenge, but we're really looking forward to the week, it's a great game for the players to play in.”
The Irish will need a remarkable run of results to haul themselves back into contention in qualification Group A after losing back-to-back ties against Serbia and modest Luxembourg.
After their daunting trip to the Algarve, Kenny’s men will return home to Dublin and will probably need to bag full points from their games against Azerbaijan next Saturday and Serbia next Tuesday to stand any chance of reaching next summer’s finals.
"It's a real tough challenge, Portugal have some really outstanding players, there's no doubt about that, but a lot of our players are looking forward to showing what they've got.”
The Irish players were fortunate to play in front of 7,000 fans in a scoreless friendly match with Hungary before the Euro 2020 finals and just over 10,000 fans will attend Wednesday night’s Portugal tie in Faro.
When Azerbaijan come to Dublin, there is expected to be in the region of 28,000 supporters in the Aviva Stadium – the first time the Irish national team will play in front of their own fans since the start of the global pandemic.
“Going to games now, since the crowds have come back, it’s a different experience,” Kenny said, who endured an 11-game winless streak before beating Andorra 4-1 in June.
“There is intensity in the games, there is passion, just no comparison to an empty stadium. Players’ performances sometimes elevate, some need to feel the crowd close to them and the passion, that can help inspire them to play and teams to play.
“It’s what players dream about doing, playing in front of an Irish support in their home city, their capital city, it is special the first time they play in front of their own families and it’s very personal for them and quite special. They will look to embrace that and be inspired by it.”
Asked if he felt some of Ireland’s results might have been different had they played in front of a passionate home support over the last 12 months, the manager replied: “I think it would be wrong for me to speculate on that. You never know the answer to that question. All can I say is we’re looking forward to going to Portugal, a great crowd out there, two home games are terrific for us as well.”
