Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ANYTHING BU THREE POINTS NOT AN OPTION
Despite manager’s comment about ‘must-win games’ this exactly what it says on the ti Luxembourg must be beaten
FOOTBALL managers will always say that the next game up is the most important because, well, it’s the next game up.
But the weight attached to tonight’s World Cup clash against Luxembourg is particularly significant for Stephen Kenny.
It’s the sliding doors game of his tenure as Republic of Ireland manager.
Win the game, and Ireland will have done something they haven’t been able to do in their previous nine games under his watch.
It would be a timely shot in the arm for an improving side that played well in defeat to
Serbia (right) but for no reward.
But in a world where points win prizes, nothing but victory will do at Aviva Stadium tonight.
Three points would lift a weight, ease doubts and lighten the mood and hopefully drive Ireland on ahead of
September’s vital tripleheader.
But not winning would have massive ramifications for Kenny and the year ahead.
His critics have been waiting to pounce from an early stage, so the knives will be out, but even his backers would struggle to justify being held by the group minnows.
It was put to Kenny during his pre-match press conference yesterday that he seemed reluctant to commit to it being a “must win game”.
And in an immediate follow up question, he was asked if he was implying Ireland could still finish in the top two if they don’t beat Luxembourg?
“Well, it depends on your grasp of mathematics but anything is possible,” he said.
“It’s important that we win the game. We want to win the game.
“‘Must-win’. What is that? Is it an adjective? What does must-win mean?
“We want to do well and we’re going to be very determined to try and win the game, that’s our objective.
“The players’ attitude is exceptional and we played very well the other day. We were disappointed to lose.
“We want to win the game against Luxembourg and we’ll try everything we can. All the players will give everything of themselves to win the game.”
And asked if he and his players were under pressure to finally deliver that first win,
Kenny said: “I can see why you would think that and it’s a fair question.
“But if you were in the hotel now or on the training ground, you wouldn’t feel that from the team. They know they played really well the other night.
“They also know you can’t dwell on that but it’s very buoyant around the place, so the players are in really good spirits and anxious to do well.
“They seem quite relaxed and I really feel we’re in a much better place than we were in November, for example, coming into that last Bulgaria game with a lot of tension.”
In the 11 years that his opposite number, Luc Holtz,
Must-win. What is that? Is it an adjective? What does must-win mean? We want to win the game
has been manager of Luxembourg, they have climbed from 134th in the world to 95th.
But they have only won more than one game in a qualifying campaign on one occasion – and are the lowest ranked team Kenny has faced so far.
In the recent Nations League campaign, they won away to Montenegro and Azerbaijan in League C and also beat Cyprus at home.
In 2017, Holtz almost masterminded a remarkable win over a
France side that included Kylian Mbappe but, having hit the woodwork late on, settled for a 0-0 draw.
Luxembourg also drew 1-1 with Italy under his watch, although that clash with the Azzurri was seven years ago at this stage.
“I’m not trying to talk them up,” stressed Kenny, “but they’ve actually had a lot of good results, better that I would have expected.
“But we’re well capable of winning, if we play to our full potential. We must take the confidence we gained in Serbia into this home game and show our quality.
“We want to make sure that we move the ball quickly, whether that’s dribbling or passing the ball.
“We don’t want a slow build up, we want a level of speed in our play so we can attack. But Luxembourg are quite an open team themselves and they have caused teams problems.” Tonight, Kenny simply cannot afford to see Ireland added to their small list of scalps.