Gavin Cooney reports from Republican Stadium, Yerevan

IRELAND MANAGER STEPHEN Kenny accepted Ireland’s opening-day defeat away to Armenia has already damaged his team’s aspirations to top their Nations League group. 

Kenny openly stated his ambition to win the group prior to the draw being made in October, but those hopes have already been complicated by a 1-0 loss away to the group’s lowest seeds in Yerevan. A flat Irish performance was punished by Eduard Spertsyan’s stunning long-range strike 15 minutes from time. 

“We’ve made life difficult for ourselves”, admitted a downbeat Kenny after the game. “But rather than focusing on that, we’ve got to focus on bouncing back on Wednesday. We’ve got two home games now, we need to dust ourselves down. We’re disappointed with ourselves, we know it’s a poor result, we’re well aware of that.”

Ireland struggled to break down Armenia’s deep-lying defence all night, managing just two shots on target. Kenny admits Ireland were surprised at their change of shape, shifting from their customary back four to a back five. 

“Obviously we lost the game, a tight game really overall. It’s not a game that we deserved to lose, you couldn’t say that on the balance of play and chances, but we’ve lost it and we only have ourselves to blame. We are disappointed.

“I felt the last 20-25 minutes of the first half we were really in control but we didn’t start the second half like that at all. We didn’t start the second half like we ended the first. We were susceptible to counter attacks. We studied Armenia’s last 20 games: they had never played five at the back before, only once against Germany. They always played 4-4-2. We found it difficult to break them down. They didn’t really have any chances bar the offside goal so it’s disappointing overall.”

Tonight fitted an ugly trend of Ireland struggling to break down low-lying teams: it happened in the friendly against Lithuania in March and also in home games against Luxembourg and Azerbaijan last year. And, to add to the similarities, Ireland conceded to a shot from outside the box. 

“Luxembourg was a long time ago, there were reasons for that. Tonight, yeah, I accept criticism of that. We didn’t unlock the door more and create more clear-cut chances against Armenia. Obviously they defended crosses well and all of our one-two play at the edge of the box, they got a lot of vital tackles and blocks at key times. We had a lot of half chances from corner kicks, Chiedozie had a header, Shane Duffy quite a few, John Egan too. We had most of the chances in the game but just couldn’t make it work. They scored from a position that is not even a half chance, we’ve got punished.” 

The Armenian manager, Spaniard Joaquin Caparros, was met with applause from local media as he arrived for his post-game press conference: a remarkable turnaround after calls for him to go in the wake of their previous game, a 9-0 friendly loss to Norway. 

“It’s one of the greatest victories of the Armenian football team, because Ireland is a very good team”, he said.