IRELAND MANAGER Stephen Kenny lamented the manner of his side’s 2-1 defeat in Greece after conceding a second goal just four minutes into the second half.
The Boys in Green had drawn level through Nathan Collins in the first half after falling behind to a 15th-minute penalty, converted by captain Tasos Bakasetas after Callum O’Dowda raised his arm in the box to stop a George Baldock cross.
But Giorgos Masouros’ finish so soon after the interval, when he had acres of space to run into following a pass which took three Ireland players out of the game, proved decisive.
The visitors then toiled in their attempts to find an equaliser before Matt Doherty was sent off for violent conduct in injury time.
Ireland are now pointless after two games ahead of the visit of Gibraltar on Monday.
“We’re disappointed with the performance. I think we were well in the game for all of it, we just let ourselves down with the defending for the two goals. That’s the disappointing aspect,” Kenny told RTÉ.
“In the first half Greece were better than us, they had more control of the game. They hurt us with big switches, we overcompensated to give ourselves too much to do, too much ground to make up.
“We got pinned in for the corner kicks [early on] but we got through that, just a bad goal to give away. It was a bit of a harsh penalty but it is what it is, if you lift your hand, he didn’t intend to do it but that went against us.
“We changed it at half time,” Kenny explained. “We went 3-4-2-1 and that was to establish more control of the game. Sometimes with two up front we’d have more cutting edge through the middle.
“To be honest, we did have more control but they’re 2-1 up and naturally drop off so we can’t assume credit for that. We just committed that cardinal sin of giving that goal away four minutes into the second half. We got punished for poor defending there. We should have got over quicker and we shouldn’t have been done in the manner we were. We were done [for the goal].
“We had a few chances to equalise but they were better than us.”
Asked were his side’s chances of qualifying for Euro 2024 now over, Kenny said: “We’ve made it hard for ourselves and all we can do is get ready for Monday. More or less a full house for Gibratar so we’ve got to get ourselves right and get back to winning ways.
“Criticism is part and I do have to accept that tonight. We wanted it to be better than it was tonight, there is no doubt about that but at the same time we were still right in the game until the end, we had chances to equalise. We never gave up, we kept going, kept going, but they had more control for sure.”