Gavin Cooney reports from Estadio Algarve, Portugal

ANDREW MORAN HAS been ruled out of making a senior debut against Gibraltar tomorrow night through injury. 

Moran, a Brighton player currently on loan at Blackburn, was due to be called into the squad for tomorrow’s dead rubber in Portugal but an ankle injury sustained against Latvia for the Irish U21s has ruled him out of a call-up on what would have been his 20th birthday. 

Stephen Kenny has an otherwise fully fit squad to choose from for tomorrow’s qualifier, which has nothing on the line as both sides are out of contention to qualify directly from the group. 

Gibraltar are staging the game at the Estadio Algarve in Faro, as their ground is under construction. The stands will be approximately 90% empty, with the crowd forecast to be in the region of 3500 people. 

“Motivation is not an issue when you put on the green shirt, yes we’re out of the running which we’re disappointed with”, said Stephen Kenny at his pre-match press conference. “We acknowledge that. Tomorrow, it’s an international game, it’s one we want to win.” 

Ireland hold a faint, faint hope of qualifying via the Nations League play-offs, but they need a series of results to go their way across Europe to avail of that safety net. Ireland can afford for no more than two sides ranked below them in the Nations League rankings to qualify automatically via their groups, but the Irish prospects have been heavily damaged by a series of upsets.

Across this week and next month’s window, Ireland need at least two of three following scenarios: That Wales knock out Turkey; that Bosnia recover and finish second behind Portugal and, crucially, ahead of Luxembourg and Slovakia; and that Israel finish ahead of Romania. 

“We are constantly updated and kept aware of possible opportunities”, said Kenny. “Turkey winning against Croatia wasn’t good for us, but Bosnia winning was good. Bosnia have to play Slovakia in the last game, which is one possibility. And we don’t know what’s happening with Israel, if they had beaten Kosovo they would have gone into second, we don’t know what the situation is there. It is interesting.” 

But, as he later acknowledged, Ireland cannot rely on the play-off, and never could. Prospects have now receded to around a 2% chance. For tomorrow’s game, Kenny was shtum on his team selection, and a to whether he would pick a full-strength side or rotate and bring in some of his fringe players. “It depends on the definition of full strength. What we want to do is pick a team that we feel can win and that tactically suits this game and that’s what we will do.”

Given Gibraltar have lost every qualifier they have ever played, the alternative is unthinkable. Nathan Collins certainly hasn’t been sidelined for his performance against Greece on Friday, with Kenny saying after that game his half-time substitution was tactical, having earlier vented his frustration at the fact Giorgos Giakoumakis was left unmarked in the box to score the opening goal. 

“Nathan has been absolutely brilliant for us overall. He has 16 caps for one so young, since he has come into the team. The goals we conceded were the result of collective defending, certainly not him and we wanted to get Ryan Manning on the left. Also, Liam Scales being a left footed player gave us an option to move the ball quickly.” 

Tomorrow’s game is immaterial to the point that it won’t change Kenny’s position, with the FAI publicly saying last week they will stick to their guns and allow Kenny see out the campaign, which ends away to the Dutch in November.

“Jonathan Hill perfectly clarified it when he said that ‘Stephen would be the manager until the games in November’, and they’ll have a review and assess that”, said Kenny. “At the moment that’s out of my control, in this camp it was important to try and win against Greece, we haven’t managed to do that, I understand that, that it’s not a good result for us.

“But from my point of view I am contracted to the end of the campaign so I just want to finish strong, finish the campaign strong, If there is a playoff we can assess that, but finish the campaign strong and take it from there. We are motivated to do that, finish the campaign strong. No international is easy. Gibraltar has a small population and their own challenges but they made it difficult for Ireland in the previous campaign, winning 1-0 in a tight game here. It was in Gibraltar of course.”