STEPHEN KENNY HAILED his much-changed Irish u21s following today’s 1-0 Euro 2021 qualifier win over Armenia, a result which keeps them at the top of Group 1 ahead of the visit of Sweden to Tallaght on Tuesday.
Kenny was without five of his starting line-up from last month’s draw with Italy, with Lee O’Connor, Jayson Molumby and Troy Parrott suspended while Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Masterson missed the game with injury.
In spite of the squad’s depletion, Ireland dominated much of the game and eeked out a win through Zach Elbouzedi’s second-half goal. Ireland had reason to sweat late on as Dara O’Shea was sent off for a last-man foul, but Armenia failed to trouble Gavin Bazunu in the Irish goal.
“I’m very pleased with the win”, Kenny told FAI TV at full-time.
“The players really worked hard for each other today, there was a real sense of team. We had a lot of changes from the previous game, with three of the back four and the goalkeeper making their debuts.
“When you’re putting them together over a couple of days you don’t have a lot of preparation, but they were so composed and did very well. We had a high-pressing game which Armenia struggled to live with, and we created a lot of great chances that we just couldn’t take.
“You think it might not be our night but persistence is important and we kept going.
“We’re delighted to get the win. We’ve had a brilliant campaign and then we had such a setback in Iceland with a defeat we didn’t deserve, so it was important to bounce back with a win here.”
Kenny praised the defensive resilience of his players to restrict Armenia to virtually nothing even after the sending off, and admitted his side should have won by more than a goal.
“We should have been easy winners, really, with some of the chances we missed, but nothing in life is easy and you have to earn everything you get.”
Focus now switches to Tuesday’s clash with Sweden, who lie seven points behind Ireland, albeit with three games in hand. Dara O’Shea will be suspended for that game, and Kenny is hopeful his centre-back partner Nathan Collins shakes off the knock he picked up today.
The manager will, however, be boosted by the returns of defender Lee O’Connor and captain Jayson Molumby for that game.
“It’s a big game on Tuesday, it would be great to have a good crowd. We’ve got to build momentum again after tonight’s win, and bring it into the game on Tuesday.
“It’s a home game for us at Tallaght, the games have been brilliant for us there, we haven’t conceded a goal, we had a full house against Italy and we’ve beaten Luxembourg and Armenia there so they have been great games and we look forward to going there on Tuesday.”
