MARTIN O’NEILL HAS described Ireland’s loss to Armenia as a ‘major setback’.
Speaking with the Scottish edition of The Times, O’Neill delivered the view that Ireland’s victories this season against Lithuania, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan may have provided a false impression of the team’s true standing.
“The Armenia game was a big, big setback,” O’Neill told The Times‘ Graeme Macpherson. “Sometimes you get a couple of [positive] results in matches against sides who are not in the top 80 — teams like Andorra and Lithuania. You can start to get a false impression of where you are.
“Then you travel to Armenia fully expecting to win and get off to a bad start; it’s a major setback for them. I suppose a couple of years into Stephen’s (Kenny) reign, you’d have to ask [where they’re at].
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“If his remit was to rebuild an Irish side and get time to do that then that’s fine. But in international football you still have to win football matches.”
The O’Neill era can be divided into three parts. Initially, he struggled for consistency, either with his team’s selections or with their performances. There were several draws, last-minute equalisers a common theme.
A 12-month golden period followed, the victory over the then world champions, Germany, propelling Ireland to a play-off which they won, against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Those wins were the first competitive victories Ireland had achieved against top-seeded opposition since 2001.
Roy and the everlasting joy of the O'Neill era. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Further scalps would follow, against Italy in the Euro 2016 finals, in Vienna against Austria and then in Cardiff against Wales, those latter wins the most notable victories on the road since Scotland were defeated in 1987 in a Euro 88 qualifier.
Things then turned sour in his final year. A 5-1 humiliation at home to Denmark in a World Cup play-off was followed by a 4-1 hammering in Cardiff by Wales in the Nations League. Two further draws against Denmark and another defeat to Wales followed. He was sacked by the end of 2018 and has rarely spoken about Ireland since.
“When I was managing the Republic, Robbie was ending his career,” O’Neill said. “He was about 34 and just couldn’t do it. He could maybe play and score a hat-trick against Gibraltar but against the bigger sides he wouldn’t be able to do what he had been capable of doing.
“We would have cried out for a Robbie Keane to be maybe ten years younger but we didn’t have that. At the European Championships in France, our main man was Jon Walters. You wouldn’t call Jon prolific.
“And in the World Cup play-off that we got to, when Denmark hammered us, our main man was James McClean. Scotland do not possess a Gareth Bale at the minute and Ireland haven’t had one since Robbie in his heyday. Everyone is crying out for that and that is probably the difference between Scotland not heading to the World Cup.”
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Martin O'Neill: 'Armenia defeat was a big, big setback for Ireland'
MARTIN O’NEILL HAS described Ireland’s loss to Armenia as a ‘major setback’.
Speaking with the Scottish edition of The Times, O’Neill delivered the view that Ireland’s victories this season against Lithuania, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan may have provided a false impression of the team’s true standing.
“The Armenia game was a big, big setback,” O’Neill told The Times‘ Graeme Macpherson. “Sometimes you get a couple of [positive] results in matches against sides who are not in the top 80 — teams like Andorra and Lithuania. You can start to get a false impression of where you are.
“Then you travel to Armenia fully expecting to win and get off to a bad start; it’s a major setback for them. I suppose a couple of years into Stephen’s (Kenny) reign, you’d have to ask [where they’re at].
“If his remit was to rebuild an Irish side and get time to do that then that’s fine. But in international football you still have to win football matches.”
The O’Neill era can be divided into three parts. Initially, he struggled for consistency, either with his team’s selections or with their performances. There were several draws, last-minute equalisers a common theme.
A 12-month golden period followed, the victory over the then world champions, Germany, propelling Ireland to a play-off which they won, against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Those wins were the first competitive victories Ireland had achieved against top-seeded opposition since 2001.
Further scalps would follow, against Italy in the Euro 2016 finals, in Vienna against Austria and then in Cardiff against Wales, those latter wins the most notable victories on the road since Scotland were defeated in 1987 in a Euro 88 qualifier.
Things then turned sour in his final year. A 5-1 humiliation at home to Denmark in a World Cup play-off was followed by a 4-1 hammering in Cardiff by Wales in the Nations League. Two further draws against Denmark and another defeat to Wales followed. He was sacked by the end of 2018 and has rarely spoken about Ireland since.
“When I was managing the Republic, Robbie was ending his career,” O’Neill said. “He was about 34 and just couldn’t do it. He could maybe play and score a hat-trick against Gibraltar but against the bigger sides he wouldn’t be able to do what he had been capable of doing.
“We would have cried out for a Robbie Keane to be maybe ten years younger but we didn’t have that. At the European Championships in France, our main man was Jon Walters. You wouldn’t call Jon prolific.
“And in the World Cup play-off that we got to, when Denmark hammered us, our main man was James McClean. Scotland do not possess a Gareth Bale at the minute and Ireland haven’t had one since Robbie in his heyday. Everyone is crying out for that and that is probably the difference between Scotland not heading to the World Cup.”
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Ireland Martin O'Neill