Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
EUSTACE’S NEW MRS CAN WAIT
PAUL O’HEHIR
COACH John Eustace joined up with the Ireland squad in Yerevan in the early hours of this morning after putting his honeymoon on hold.
The Englishman - who succeeded Anthony Barry on Stephen Kenny’s first-team staff - missed the squad’s training sessions in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday. He got married in the Cotswolds on Wednesday, but flew here to the Armenian capital overnight ahead of tomorrow’s opening
Nations League game. Ireland boss Kenny said:
“When he was appointed, he said the one problem he had was that his wedding was on and that he had it all booked.
“I said that’s fine. He was there for the first three days in Dublin, he just got a couple of days [off], and he is coming in later.”
Meanwhile, Kenny was impressed with Ukraine’s ruthless 3-1 dismantling of Scotland in Wednesday’s World Cup playoff semi-final.
He watched the game in full yesterday morning from the team hotel in the Armenian capital - but insists he cannot lose sight of Saturday’s game first.
After the Armenia clash, Ireland will host Ukraine in the Nations League on Wednesday before facing Scotland at Aviva Stadium on Saturday week.
Ireland then travel to the Polish city of Lodz to face Ukraine in the ‘away’ game.
Kenny said: “Ukraine were excellent in the game, really impressive, weren’t they. We knew that as we have watched a lot of their games, very good.
“But to be honest we really have to just focus on Armenia.
“They have had some good home wins here against Iceland and Romania, two good teams.
“They won a group with Georgia and North Macedonia to qualify, so you have to respect that.”
Kenny: We’re fully focused on Armenia as they have had some good results