Ireland now under a very different kind of pressure in must-win reunion with Armenia

Gavin Cooney

THIS IS IRELAND’S bind: they can take a lot from their narrow loss to Portugal except any real evidence they are ready to beat Armenia tonight. 

Abandoning any pretence of attacking to sit deep and defend doggedly suits this group of players – as Heimir Hallgrimsson and Seamus Coleman admitted after in Lisbon – but assuming the pressure of needing to go out and actually beat someone at home is the scenario in which all are much more uncomfortable. 

But beat Armenia they must. If Ireland don’t win tonight, they’ll utterly waste the forgiving permutations of their qualifying group and the endgame at the Aviva will be noxious. It may also hasten the manager’s departure. 

A win means Ireland will prolong their interest in this campaign to its conclusion next month, which was their minimum requirement from the outset.

How real that interest is will also rely on Portugal beating Hungary tonight but, remarkably, should Ireland win and Hungary lose with a four-goal swing across both games, then Ireland would go into November in second place in the group. 

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. 

Ireland have a lot to prove tonight. Firstly, can they arrest this trend of failing to put back-to-back performances together in the same window?

Hallgrimsson has reacted by prioritising energy conservation. He has lightened the players’ training load and made substitutions earlier in Lisbon than he would have otherwise, which points to Festy Ebosele’s inclusion tonight.

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The players must also prove they can flush the memories of Yerevan out of their system. (The reaction to that game among the players was of a kind of baffled shame: Ireland’s Sky Man of the Match from that night – a bauble which has to be awarded for contractual reasons – left his award after him in Armenia.)

Asked yesterday as to what went wrong in Armenia, Nathan Collins still didn’t have an answer.

“It’s such an awkward one”, said Collins. “The only thing I ever say at the end of the day is just football. Football is such a mad sport. Anything can happen, things change, it happens so quickly, momentum, how players feel, it’s just confidence. There are so many small things that add into a lot of big things.” 

That they still can’t explain what went wrong a month ago would not fill you with belief that they know how to make it right tonight. 

Ireland’s confidence remains a greatly cracked mosaic, and their admirable toil in Portugal is not solely enough to piece it back together again. Hallgrimsson has, however, stressed that the togetherness and “connectedness” of the performance against Portugal can be brought into tonight’s game, albeit it will have to be used in an attacking sense too. 

“This is where we should build our performance from structure”, said Hallgrimsson. “Pressing from structure and attacking from structure. And when you do that with intensity, collectively, you are a team that’s difficult to beat and break down.” 

Structure and connectedness is what melted in Yerevan. Ireland were already losing when Josh Cullen was withdrawn for Killian Phillips in the second half of that game, but it was a disastrous change by Hallgrimsson. Phillips ran around madly trying to make an impact, which meant Ireland lost all positional discipline in midfield. The consequence was utter Armenian dominance. 

Cullen – the outstanding Irish midfielder of his generation – is absent tonight through suspension, and its a measure of the aforementioned substitute that he has been replaced in the squad by Conor Coventry, rather than Phillips.  He is a major loss, given Ireland last won a competitive match without Cullen in September 2022, although that was against Armenia. 

Coventry has been drafted in as call-up and he may be thrown right into the fray for his senior debut, given he is the only true holding midfielder in the Irish squad. A Molumby/Smallbone partnership risks leaving the same midfield gaps as Armenia exploited last month.

Ireland will likely whiplash back to their back-four set-up tonight, having dusted off a 5-4-1 in Lisbon. That would mean dropping one of their most impressive defensive performers from that game, though Seamus Coleman’s absence in Yerevan shows it should not be him.

Jake O’Brien was terrific against Portugal but looks most likely to make way, given Collins retains the armband and Dara O’Shea is one of the few with experience of playing on the left side of the Irish central defence. Collins was excellent against Portugal, though sitting that deep suits his strengths. Tonight he must prove he is comfortable holding a high defensive line, a test that was abjectly failed in Yerevan. 

Meanwhile, Troy Parrott’s cameo in Lisbon means he is in contention to start too, and with Ryan Manning likely needed at left-back, Finn Azaz may return to offer Ireland some attacking craft going forward. Evan Ferguson endured a tough night against Portugal but he is Ireland’s best source of goals.

Hallgrimsson is not interested in scoring any style points, and nor is there any vague talk of building confidence and creating something to build on.

“The result is the only thing that matters tomorrow”, said Hallgrimsson at his pre-match press conference. “However we do it, I would take a shitty game and win 1-0. This is a result game, 100%.” 

The FAI sold another 3,000 tickets for tonight in the day after the Portugal game, proof that Ireland’s defensive stand kindled some enthusiasm among the public. All will be lost if they do not win tonight. 

Ireland (Possible XI): Kelleher; Coleman, Collins, O’Shea, Manning; Ebosele, Molumby, Coventry, Azaz; Parrott, Ferguson

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