NOW FINISH IT ON A HIGH
Ireland need to see off Armenia – then focus on Euro 2024
W“Has any mid ranking team got a worse record?”
HEN the Nations League draw lit up the Christmas lights last December, Stephen Kenny would have targeted the finale at home to Armenia as the ideal stage to win promotion and join the League A elite.
Not for a moment did the Republic of Ireland manager, or anyone else for that matter, consider the visit of the worst team in League B as a potential trapdoor to the football outback of League C.
But Ireland find themselves tonight needing to avoid defeat to avoid the drop after another wretched campaign in UEFA’s rookie tournament.
There are many who don’t care much for the Nations League, which is understandable as it doesn’t lead directly to a major final.
But it carries promotion and relegation, determines seedings for the European Championships and also who gets the dozen wildcards for the convoluted play-offs.
While its relevance may be sniffed at, Ireland can’t afford to cock a snook in its direction, not after one lousy win in 15 games.
Has any mid-ranking team got a worse record, I wonder?
The first edition in 2018 hastened Martin O’Neill’s exit as manager; the second campaign under Kenny in 2020 saw Ireland avoid relegation by a whisker while coughing up a second seeding for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers – a costly gaffe that is rarely mentioned.
For the third round-up, Ireland have blended splashes of vibrant colour, with palettes of grey, while gathering just four points from five games – a poor harvest.
While Ireland were scintillating against Scotland in June, they have still lost three of their five games – the last of which against the Scots on Saturday was a tough aspro to swallow.
It’s too late now for Ireland to do anything better than third, as they did two years ago under Kenny when they were held 0-0 by Bulgaria in Dublin, to narrowly avoid relegation.
This time, it’s Armenia who fill the role of potential party-poopers.
The men from the Caucasus may be the worst team Ireland have played in this competition but they need to be put away, to allow Kenny to turn his attention to the qualification that will define his reign – the 2024 Euros.
That Kenny mentioned the word ‘important’ ten times yesterday was telling. He also said how Ireland have to ‘earn’ victory on five occasions.
Kenny’s opposite number Joaquin Caparros has been in charge of Armenia during the same era as Kenny. The experienced Spaniard has won nine games out of 25, compared to Kenny’s six out of 27.
One of those wins came against Ireland in June when Armenia played rope-a-dope in the first half in Yerevan before stinging like a bee to win 1-0, a setback from which Ireland never recovered.
Kenny mentioned the return of two key Armenian players, Varazdat Haroyan and Eduard Spertsyan, as a warning but, even if Charles Aznavour, Andre Agassi and Youri Djorkaeff were in the lineup, it shouldn’t matter a fig.
For Armenia are a team in decline and the future of Caparros is on the line – his contract is up in November and local journalists have said they won’t talk to him until he goes.
That win over Ireland was their only success in 12 competitive games since March 2021. They have lost four in a row in the Nations League, while leaking 14 goals, and Ireland, for all their inconsistencies, should win handily enough.
Yet the under-fire Caparros was in a defiant mood last night. ‘We have two objectives. First, to make up for our performance in the last match (5-0 loss to Ukraine) and second, to keep our place in Group B,’ he said.
When relegation was mentioned yesterday, defender Nathan Collins spoke up on behalf of the manager in his assessment of the campaign. ‘There are two ways of looking at it,’ he said. ‘You can look at results and think we could have done a lot better but then you can look at performances and say, apart from maybe one game, we haven’t been at it.
‘But in most games we’ve been involved, we’ve nearly been the better team, we’ve had chances and we’ve defended well.
‘It’s whatever way you want to look at it but, from my perspective, as a team, you can see every game that we’re getting better.’
If the results don’t bear that out, Ireland’s general play certainly deserved more than a point from the last two games, away to Ukraine and Scotland.
Asked by Sportsmail whether
there had been progress overall on his watch, Kenny was bullish.
‘We’ve integrated 16 players that have come through and been given their competitive debuts in the last 18 months,’ he said.
‘There was a team at the end of its cycle and it needed to be reinvigorated. Plus, we had these talented young players coming through, so the timing was good for that.
‘The players have come through, got a lot of experience and played some terrific stuff consistently.
‘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, there’s no doubt about that, and we want to win tomorrow night.’
Kenny mentioned the need for Ireland to ‘improve’ and ‘improvement’ several times yesterday.
If Ireland pick up where they left off in Glasgow, they should win in a canter.
Whether Kenny again trusts the kids, or he recalls some of the gnarly old salts, a proper goal-rush is long overdue, as is that second Nations League win.
And should it become dogged and dour by the Dodder, winning ugly will do just fine too.