WE WILL LEARN OUR LESSONS
SEAMUS Coleman or Matt Doherty? Or none of the above?
IRELAND could face a nightmare Euro 2024 qualifying draw against European champions Italy AND current world champions France in their bid to make it to Germany in two years’ time.
The Boys in Green will
POT ONE Netherlands Hungary Denmark Spain Portugal Italy Belgium Croatia Poland Switzerland (right) be third seeds for the draw in Frankfurt on October 9 (11am Irish time) when Stephen Kenny’s side discover the task in store as the nation seeks to reach a fourth European
POT TWO France Austria Czech Rep England Wales Israel Bosnia Serbia Scotland Finland
POT THREE Ukraine Iceland Norway Slovenia IRELAND Albania Montenegro Romania Sweden Armenia
Championships.
Kenny’s men, who rounded off their Nations League campaign on Tuesday with a 3-2 win over Armenia, could also be pitted against
POT FOUR Georgia Greece Turkey Kazakhstan Luxembourg Azerbaijan Kosovo Bulgaria Faroe Islands N. Macedonia the likes of Spain and Belgium from the top pot, and England, Wales and Nations League opponents Scotland from the second pot.
Only the top two in a group will qualify automatically for the tournament.
POT FIVE Slovakia N. Ireland Cyprus Belarus Lithuania Gibraltar Estonia Latvia Moldova Malta
POT SIX Andorra Liechtenstein San Marino
STEPHEN KENNY has denied that his Ireland players are struggling mentally to see out games.
The Boys in Green were relieved to score a stoppage-time penalty to save face and beat Armenia at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday.
Cruising at 2-0 with 19 minutes to play, Ireland imploded and conceded two goals in two minutes.
It was the third game in-a-row where Ireland coughed up a lead, having lost to Scotland last weekend while drawing with Ukraine in June.
But Kenny claims it is not a cause for concern within his young squad as he strives for consistency ahead of the Euro 2024 bid.
Different
need to be,” he said, citing one marauding Nathan Collins (inset) run into Armenia’s box as an example.
“It’s a fine line between a centre-half running, dribbling and scoring against the Ukraine, beating five or six players and then criticising him for doing it again.
“But I just think the context of the game, when you’re winning
2-0, is different.
“All our centre-backs, and not just the centrebacks, even our wingbacks, we were just a bit too eager. We were too advanced on the pitch, collectively, for a team winning 2-0.
“We didn’t need to chase it. Just calm down and relax and keep possession and control the game more.
Mistakes
“But that’s not to say we won’t continue to attack because we will. That’s what we’re committed to — we’re committed to playing the way we want to play.
“We made mistakes and ultimately conceded goals, but we won the match and completely deserved to.
“There’s no question we deserved to win that match. We should have won it by more goals than we did. We will learn our lessons.” And he added: “The players were disappointed and it wasn’t a euphoric dressing room, even though we won 3-2 — the players know.”