IRISH U21 MANAGER Stephen Kenny is hopeful that his side won’t be affected by their heavy recent schedule when they face Sweden in a Euro 2021 qualifier at Tallaght tomorrow night.
While this is Sweden’s only game of this international window, Ireland had to take three separate flights to get home from last Thursday’s 1-0 win against Armenia in Yerevan. They returned to Ireland in the early hours of Saturday morning, and spent the weekend readjusting to the four-hour time difference.
“I’m hopeful that it won’t because it’s a couple of more days. It is tiring and I did find myself waking up the last couple of mornings at 5 o’clock myself. It takes you a little bit of time to readjust again.
“I do think that by Tuesday we’ll be fine in that regard but psychologically it is a challenge because you come off and you’re happy you won in Armenia and then the flights and psychologically that’s the challenge, to get back up quickly.”
Kenny’s side bounced back from defeat in Iceland to eke out a fully deserved 1-0 win last week, a result which leaves them top of Group 1 on 13 points, albeit having played more games than their rivals.
While Ireland finished last Thursday’s game with 10 men following the sending off of Dara O’Shea, they dominated the game and deserved to win by more than the solitary second-half goal scored by Zach Elbouzedi.
Facing a Sweden side whom they came from behind to beat away from home earlier in the campaign, Kenny is calling for his side to be more clinical.
“It was a comprehensive win but we just couldn’t get that elusive goal. Our finishing let us down a bit. But we forced a lot of their mistakes, the Armenian mistakes [a result of] high-pressing strategy, people like Conor Ronan and Jason Knight, the distance they cover is ferocious.
“They do force mistakes from the opposition. Our finishing wasn’t clinical, and because of that you have to have an element of persistence and we did have that, which I was pleased with.
“Yeah, Sweden are very good. They hammered Iceland in a surprising result. They beat Luxembourg convincingly – they were 3-0 up at half-time, and it finished 3-0 – so they’ve reacted to defeat in Sweden with two comprehensive wins.
“They are a good team, with players playing first-team football.
“It’s a fascinating game really, as the essence of what we are trying to do is to control games and be in control of our destiny within games. We want to control possession with our back four and our midfield players rotating, so we need to have the ability to create and take chances, that’s the key.”
Kenny is without a number of players central to that win in Sweden: Jonathan Afolabi and Aaron Connolly are injured, while Troy Parrott is now involved with the senior squad.
There is a slight doubt about the availability of captain Jayson Molumby, too, as he sat out training yesterday with a muscle strain. Kenny remains optimistic the midfielder will be fit to play. He has been boosted by the return of Conor Masterson – timely given O’Shea is suspended – while Lee O’Connor is back among the squad having played in last Thursday’s senior friendly with New Zealand.
Between senior call-ups, injuries and suspensions, Kenny has been forced to call on a wide number of players so far this year. Four of the back five against Armenia, for example, were making their debuts at U21 level.
“The fact that has been so many changes shows that there is a depth to the talent”, said Kenny. “There have been players promoted, players injured and players suspended, so we have shown the team has a depth.”
Not that Kenny is lamenting Parrott’s involvement with the senior side.
“It’s all about the first team tonight, to be fair. It’s all about the first team. So hopefully Troy gets on and scores the winner.”
