IRISH SKIPPER Conor Coventry acknowledges tomorrow’s clash with Italy will be one of the biggest games he has ever been involved in.
A win would seal Ireland’s place at the Euros, while even if they don’t manage to pick up three points, they will have the consolation of qualification still being in their hands via the playoffs in September.
Asked whether it would his biggest-ever game, the West Ham youngster said: “It’d be right up there. Any time you play for Ireland, it’s a massive achievement, it’s one of the most important games, but especially this one.
“We know how close we are to qualifying, something we’ve never done before at this level. It’s all the better against a team that have won World Cups and are obviously a massive footballing nation.”
It’s easier said than done, however, against a side that beat Ireland 2-0 at Tallaght in the reverse fixture. That match could easily have turned out differently, however, with Ross Tierney missing a great chance to equalise late on before the Azzurri doubled their advantage shortly thereafter.
“I’ve played them a few times now,” added Coventry. “They’re very comfortable on the ball, a good side, well organised. Obviously, they’re a real leader in football. So we know they’ve got quality. We also know what we’re good at and that we have quality as well.
“But they’re always tight games, the last one at Tallaght was 1-0 all game and they scored late on, so even though it was 2-0, it was very tight. So we’ve come here believing we really can get a result.”
And is Coventry expecting a more cautious approach from the Italians this time around given that they only need a draw to qualify?
“I don’t know about more defensive, but the pressure is obviously on them. We’re coming here with nothing to lose really. They’re top. We’ve got the playoff confirmed. So it’s more to lose for them, I think, to lose that top spot. Whereas we can’t drop out of the playoffs. So the pressure is on them really, there’s no pressure on us. So we’ll see how that affects them.”
The 22-year-old midfielder became Ireland’s most capped player in U21s history amid last week’s win over Montenegro, as he surpassed former Arsenal youngster Graham Barrett by making his 25th appearance. Consequently, playing at a major tournament would be a fitting end to a stellar career at this level.
“When you look at the campaign as a whole, there have been a few times that we were maybe written off after certain results and people were saying we wouldn’t be in this position.
“We always believed we could and we’re here now, so we have nothing to lose. We know we have got the play-off behind us and we believe we can win that, but we believe we can win here as well.
“We don’t want to be a team that nearly did it or got so close, we want to qualify. We’d love to do it here on Tuesday — that’s the aim.”
Italy v Ireland kicks off at 4.30pm Irish time tomorrow and will be live on RTÉ2.
