Not much to be said about a result that will live beside defeat to Luxembourg in Dublin – also on Stephen Kenny’s watch – and the 1995 draw in Liechtenstein. And yet, the immediate feeling coming out of the Republican stadium, straight into the drum and base of Yerevan’s Saturday night, is that this 1-0 collapse is more than a “setback”.
That is how the Ireland manager described it while also inaccurately defending the timing of his tardy substitutes on a night when inspiration and impact were bereft in equal measure.
Question one: Stephen, commiserations, what went wrong?
“What was the question?”
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What went wrong?
“What went wrong? Right.”
Pause.
“Obviously we lost the game. A tight game really overall, not a game that we deserved to lose, you couldn’t say that on the balance of play and the balance of chances. But we’ve lost it and we only have ourselves to blame really.”
There is literally nobody else to blame for that performance.
“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 we ended the first.
“We seemed to be susceptible to counterattacks.”
What will rankle with many is how little was done to counter Armenia’s counterattacking plan and how Kenny believes Ireland did not deserve to lose. The consequences of this defeat became clearer and more obvious as he continued to speak.
“We studied Armenia’s last 20 games. They have only played five at the back once against Germany [as recently as last November, a game they lost 4-1].
“They always played 4-4-2,” Kenny continued. “We found it difficult to break them down. We created some good chances, some half-chances. They didn’t really have any chances bar the offside goal so it’s disappointing overall.”
Apparently, Kenny witnessed a different game pitchside to people higher up in the stadium and on television. Such an answer makes it sound like Joaquín Caparrós, the wily old La Liga coach now running the show in Armenia, just did a tactical number on the Irish management. Because he did.
Certainly, Ireland wing backs Enda Stevens and Séamus Coleman were ineffective and their errors in possession exposed the back three of John Egan, Shane Duffy and impressive Nathan Colllins to stressful backpedaling in the face of wild Armenian counters.
None of this was new. Ireland have struggled to break down other lowly football nations like Azerbaijan and of course Luxembourg, both in Dublin before beating them convincingly on the road late last year.
Discuss?
“I think Luxembourg was a long time ago, you know, and there were reasons for that,” said Kenny. “Tonight, yeah, I accept criticism. We didn’t unlock the door more and create more clearcut 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 and when we did create chances, clever passes, Jeff Hendrick through to Callum Robinson and then Chiedozie Ogbene’s chance.
“We had a lot of half-chances from corner kicks, Chiedozie had a header. Shane Duffy quite a few and John Egan. 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, an unbelievable strike and we got punished.”
Luxembourg does not feel like a long time ago anymore. What feels even more recent was Kenny publicly revealing that 47th ranked Ireland intend to win a Nations League group containing Ukraine, ranked 27th by Fifa, Scotland (39th) and … number 92 in the world, Armenia.
Is that still a realistic aim?
“We have made life difficult for ourselves. We can’t focus on that. We have to focus on bouncing back against Ukraine on Wednesday. We got two home games, Ukraine and Scotland, so we got to dust ourselves down.
“We know it is a poor result, we are well aware of that.”
Fade to black.
Sometimes it is better to sound like a philosopher than an expert. Caparrós pretends not to hear the clatter of applause ringing around the press room. The local reporters are giddy. All that went before is forgiven.
Loved forever in Sevilla – they have hired and rehired the fixer three times in 20 years – the keys to Yerevan should be slipped under his door after this night yielded an unforeseen victory over an clumsy Ireland side.
Much like the 66-year-old dead-panned questions on Friday about the 9-0 humiliation at the hands of Norway last March, not to mention a 5-0 beating at home to North Macedonia in November 2021, Caparrós refused to tear into Kenny for stating that Ireland could win this group.
Any and all nuance is ruined along the way as English questions were translated into Armenian and then Spanish. Answers came in Spanish. Translated into Armenian and then English.
So the wandering gaffer kept it simple. Because football is simple, he gently chided.
“Football consists of two halves, and not one,” he responded to the suggestion that Armenia figured Ireland out at half-time.
All very Trapattoni.
“We were patient during the first half and sought our chances in the second,” he continued. “We had good conversations at half-time and we saw that we could start to play another way in the second half.
“It’s one of the greatest victories of the Armenian football team because Ireland is a very good team.
“I have to praise my players because this victory over them is a very good result.”
That Caparrós tactically cooked Kenny, Keith Andrews and new trainer John Eustace, who double jobs with QPR, was not something the Spaniard was willing to accept.
“Football is only about the result, nothing more. We don’t have to argue about anything else.”
