2024 European Qualifying Group B: Republic of Ireland v Gibraltar (Monday, Aviva Stadium, 7.45pm)
GIBRALTAR in Dublin is the worst possible fixture Ireland’s under-pressure manager Stephen Kenny could have hoped for after last Friday night’s morale-sapping and destabilising loss to Greece in Athens.
What the 51-year-old Dubliner needed tonight was an A-lister rolling into the capital - a France or a Holland - in front of a packed Aviva Stadium, a fixture that the Irish would have nothing to lose and everything to gain from.
Gibraltar, on the other hand, is an everything-to-lose Euro 2024 qualifier and gives Kenny no leverage, nothing to cling to.
Whether the Irish win 1-0 or 6-0 doesn’t really change anything for the manager or his players.
Unless they actually lose to the Group B minnows, the FAI wouldn’t have to draft a press release, Kenny would resign on the spot.
As it stands, the manager is going nowhere. Yesterday’s press conference in Abbotstown felt like a resumption of his last briefing in Athens three days earlier when he was asked about his future as Ireland manager - only this time he was more defiant.
“My contract is up until the end of the campaign and whether it’s renewed will depend on how people feel the campaign went overall, but certainly I fully expect to be.
“We want a positive result tomorrow and that’s firmly what I'm focused on.”
The manner of last Friday night’s 2-1 defeat to Greece felt like a decisive moment in Kenny’s turbulent time in charge of the Republic of Ireland.
There have been some close-run things during the last three years. Losing his first 11 matches in charge, albeit the team’s preparations were ravaged by COVID, falling behind in a friendly against Andorra was a hairy moment too.
The fall-out from the England friendly defeat when backroom team members Alan Kelly and Damien Duff exited within a matter of days of one another. Losing at home to Luxembourg. Only drawing at home to Azerbaijan. Needing a stoppage-time goal to beat Lithuania. Losing to Scotland at Hampden.
Kenny has navigated his way out of what feels like a thousand looming crises in three years – either through an impassioned defence of his philosophy or his work-in-progress team simply lifting their game, or a combination of the two.
France at home, Ukraine in Lodz, pulverising the Scots in Dublin, the near-miss against Portugal in Faro, drawing with the Portuguese in the return match in the World Cup qualifiers and the gutsy 1-1 home draw against the Serbs all raised expectations.
The highs, however, have been too fleeting. Kenny needs another one of those highs – but tonight’s low-level opposition means that’s impossible.
This game is a mere footnote.
You can’t bounce back against Gibraltar and there'll be no warm after-glow over the summer months to sustain an increasingly sceptical footballing public before they resume their Euro 2024 qualification away to France on September 7 and Holland three days later.
The Irish media has become markedly less supportive of the regime post-Athens too and it’ll be interesting to gauge the atmosphere among the supporters who turn up to the Aviva tonight.
“There is a lot of criticism, some of it justified, and I have to accept that,” Kenny said.
“Likewise, some of it inaccurate, that’s the nature of it. From my point of view, I'm not fixated with it. I'm just firmly focused on what we have to do and just focused on the task at hand, which is managing this group of players.
“We're not perfect, but I really believe in the players. I know people have other viewpoints, but I believe in the players.
“We wanted to win against Greece, we didn’t win. That's a reality. If we had won the other night against Greece, everything would have been on track, we'd have been going into the Gibraltar game with everything great.
“Now because we didn't, it’s a catastrophe, and I do get that, but we’ve got to focus on tomorrow and Gibraltar, make sure we are ready.”
Kenny has also stressed that nothing is won or lost after two opening defeats in Euro qualification – but confidence is dwindling at an alarming rate, with the Irish probably needing to take something from their away games against the French and the Dutch to haul themselves back in contention.
And beating the Greeks in Dublin in October goes without saying.
What the Irish need against Group B's no-hopers tonight is an early goal – if only to appease a potentially restless home crowd.
Gibraltar have lost their opening three games – to Greece, Holland and France – on 3-0 scorelines.
They've mustered just three shots across three games - with one of them on target - while the opposition amassed a combined 112 shots against them.
They also conceded an early goal in each tie – in the 3rd, 11th and 23rd minutes – and are certainly ageing at the back, with manager Jose Ribas still getting a tune out of 40-year-old central defender Roy Chipolina.
Mick McCarthy’s Ireland team only put three goals past them across two games during the last Euro qualifying campaign, one of which was an own goal and another a stoppage-time strike from Robbie Brady.
Reflecting on the Greek tragedy, Kenny said: “A lot of our better players have not been playing for their clubs and that's been difficult.
“That's not an excuse, we wanted to win against Greece, we didn't. Other players that should be in the team, but they haven’t been playing in so long, and are amongst our most talented, is frustrating but that's the reality.
“It’s very hard to come out of not playing for months and months and then play at international level, particularly a game of the intensity of the other night.”
The manager added: “But I believe in the players that we've got, we've got a really talented group coming through, [but] we were really disappointed.”
