Gavin Cooney

LIVERPOOL GOALKEEPER CAOIMHIN Kelleher will make his full Irish debut in tomorrow’s friendly with Qatar at the Aviva Stadium. 

Manager Stephen Kenny says he won’t make “wholesale changes” to his starting line-up for tomorrow’s game, though Kelleher will replace Bazunu in goal. Elsewhere, there are doubts surrounding the availability of Josh Cullen and Daryl Horgan. Jason Knight has shaken off his illness and will be in the squad. 

“I have a good few family coming up to watch the game”, said Kelleher at today’s pre-match press conference. “In front of the home fans, to make my first start would be a special and proud moment for me.”

Kelleher is competing with Gavin Bazunu to be Ireland’s first-choice goalkeeper, but unlike his counterpart, he has not gone on loan and instead stayed at Liverpool to be second-choice to Alisson Becker. 

“I think it’s a different situation for me anyway. Liverpool want me to stay, I’m No. 2 this season and it’s a good position to be in I think. Hopefully it’s a chance to play some games and the opportunity to play at a high level. I need to play well, if I need to have a conversation about playing more games, I’ll have it. I’m in a good position where I am.”

“I don’t regret anything, it’s different for everyone, different individuals, it’s different journeys, the way my career is going is completely different so I don’t have any regrets, I am happy to do what I do and how it has turned out.”

Kelleher may feature for Liverpool this weekend in the Saturday lunchtime game with Watford, as Alisson is playing for Brazil in the early hours of Friday morning. 

“Just at the minute it’s just the game against Qatar is the main focus. If I do play at the weekend, it would be good to get a game in before that as well. But the main focus is Qatar tomorrow.”

Kelleher will become the first Liverpool player to start a senior Irish international since Robbie Keane was at the club in 2008. 

“Caoimhin is a real natural goalkeeper, he’s a terrific talent, he obviously played 10 times for me as U21 manager so I’m obviously well aware of his qualities”, said manager Stephen Kenny. “He did terrifically well, he was just unfortunate last season when he was injured and that opened the door in March for Gavin Bazunu who has been terrific 

“Obviously Caoimhin made his debut at half-time in the game against Hungary but this is his first start tomorrow and in front of the home crowd so he deserves it.”

While Kelleher starts, Kenny says he won’t be making too many changes to the side that won in Baku on Saturday night, in a bid to keep the momentum rolling. 

“It has been a long flight and we have to get ready again with a quick turnaround. We are at home and we would like to get a home victory, but at the same time we have to balance it against the bigger picture, with Caoimhin’s selection and so forth. There won’t be wholesale changes.

“Our objective is to go out and win the game, but we will have to earn the right to do that. Qatar have earned some good results over the year. They are a very attacking team, they like to control a lot of games against the better teams. We will have to play really well, and we want to do that. We want to win at home, we want to experience that and we want the supporters to experience that.”

The game may yet sell out: the FAI say there are just 300 tickets remaining, with the crowd restricted to 25,000 under the last of the remaining Covid restrictions.