Uefa Nations League Group B1: Republic of Ireland v Armenia (tonight, Dublin, 7.45pm)
THE future’s bright – the future’s still green. The gospel, according to Stephen Kenny as the Republic of Ireland prepare for tonight’s Nations League relegation play-off with Group B1 minnows Armenia in Dublin.
It probably depends on which TV channel you watch Ireland’s matches on, or which journalists you read or listen to, but for some, Kenny is always one game away from a catastrophe.
But, tonight, there is consensus: losing on home soil to a team as modest as Armenia would probably fit that gloomy, if emotive, description.
Of course, given its very nature and intermittent appearances on the football calendar, there is far more catastrophizing done in international football than club football.
Form and momentum can disappear between international windows – but, regardless, the doubters remain heavily outnumbered by the Stephen Kenny evangelists.
The Irish should avoid defeat in the capital this evening – and go one better and avenge their Nations League loss to Armenia in Yerevan back in June – so that all eyes can shift to October 9 and the Euro 2024 qualifying draw in Frankfurt, a set of matches that will ultimately define Kenny’s reign.
It’s easy to spot the supporters and sceptics in the Ireland manager’s press conferences.
While Kenny has won over influential RTE pundit Liam Brady, over on Virgin Media, Damien Delaney is still unconvinced of the progress made under the 50-year-old Dubliner since he took charge of his first game in September 2020.
So, on the back of last Saturday night’s 2-1 defeat to Scotland, Kenny was asked in yesterday's press briefing to respond to Delaney who felt the Irish team were running in quicksand.
“I’m certainly not getting into a debate now on overall where we are,” Kenny initially replied.
“Tomorrow night’s game is very important for us. We want to go and try to beat Armenia. This is a press conference for that. If you’re asking what progress we’ve made, I suppose the fact we’ve integrated 16 players that have come through and been given their competitive debuts in the last 18 months in a team that needed that.
“Obviously there was a team at the end of its cycle and it needed to be reinvigorated and plus we had these talented young players coming through so the timing was good for that and the players have come through and got a lot of experience and played some terrific stuff consistently.
“Obviously we’ve intermitted that with a performance like the one in Armenia which was disappointing.
“So I think you can see the improvement in the team, you can see the way the team is playing, that it’s really evolving, that it’s exciting and attacking. People are excited about it but we want to win more games, and we want to win tomorrow night.”
Eyebrows were raised when the manager substituted Michael Obafemi on the hour mark at Hampden for Chiedozie Ogbene as the Irish chased a winner that never came, and they ultimately suffered their third loss in five Nations League group games to a late Ryan Christie penalty.
Kenny insisted Swansea striker Obafemi is fit to play two games in a 72-hour period but will make a couple of changes for tonight’s visit of Armenia.
And with England and France suffering the ignominy of Nations League relegation that places in them in Pot Two ahead of next month’s Euro 2024 draw, Kenny doesn’t necessarily believe that their qualification group will be any tougher as a result of those high-profile demotions. Ireland will stay in Pot Three if they avoid defeat tonight.
"England and France are second seeds, but they’re better than some of the teams in the first seeds. Some of the teams in the first seeds are not as strong as that. That can balance out. We’ll see what the draw brings.
"I think our rate of improvement and the potential that exists, and the bond we have that’s growing, and the connection with the support behind the team in such an emphatic way. We’re going to get better. We’re going to turn this place into a real fortress here, that we’ve seen against Scotland. We want every night to have that passion in the ground, to create that and to inspire the players to big victories. We want do that. That’s our absolute objective to qualify for the top two.
“We’ll see what the draw brings, and take it from there. The fourth seeds as well...there’s one or two strong fourth seeds as well. I don’t mind that as then other teams will take points off each other.”
