Baku boost for Kenny as Robinson and Ogbene secure first competitive win for Ireland manager
Ireland's Callum Robinson celebrates his second goal with Adam IdahÂ
Callum Robinson ended an eventful week by grabbing a brace against Azerbaijan to give Stephen Kenny his first win of the World Cup qualification campaign.
Debate around Robinson’s confession about declining the Covid-19 vaccine dominated the build-up and he made a point of sticking his fingers into his ears when receiving acclaim from the knot of Irish fans at the most deserted Olympic Stadium in Baku.
Substitute Chiedozie Ogbene capped his competitive debut off the bench by heading in the third to complete a win, Ireland’s first in competitive action since June 2019.
They didn’t have it all their own half, surviving a few scares after Robinson supplied the seventh-minute breakthrough, but his second six minutes before the break meant there would be no drama to bedevil Kenny against Group A’s bottom seeds.
Only twice in their last 27 games had the Azeris scored twice, against Belarus and Bahrein, so there was little chance of a comeback to deny the manager only the second win of his 17-game tenure.
There was a nervous moment with 20 minutes left, however, when referee Espen Eskas was asked to consult his monitor to check for a penalty but Matt Doherty’s handball was judged to have been forced by a push by Mahir Emreli.
Ogbene added a third at the death by heading home from Josh Cullen’s corner.
Kenny has been Aaron Connolly’s biggest fan since 2019, when, as Ireland Under-21 manager, he chose to offer a chance to a player who had been exiled from the Under-19s for an attitude problem.
Connolly duly responded, starring for the side in Toulon and the opening pair of Uefa qualifiers to earn a senior cap under Mick McCarthy.
Whenever he’s been fit and available under the Kenny regime, Connolly started but there were signals of a change during this campaign. In each of the three matches he got the nod for, the winger was substituted, and not for reasons of injury.
Inconsistency has plagued him too at club level for Brighton and in a match Kenny simply had to win for the chatter around his job to subside, Connolly wasn’t worth the risk.
Adam Idah recovered from illness to lead the line and Robinson, back in the reckoning following his Covid-related illness last month, accompanied him in attack. One other place, between midfield and attack, was up for grabs and Daryl Horgan shaded it over Jamie McGrath, though they would end up getting 45 minutes each.
Horgan is one of the seven players in the squad operating at League One level and it showed at times, notably after just three minutes when he wasted the space afforded to him by blazing a shot over after cutting in from the left.
Quality in the first third has been similarly lacking in the opening five games of the campaign and that’s where the presence of Robinson, a player fleeting between the Premier League and Championship, makes a difference.
His opener after just seven minutes showed just that, spinning from James McClean’s pass towards goal and, with defenders around him, unleashing a rising shot from the edge of the box into the near top corner.
As often occurs with Ireland teams, predating the current boss, the opener seemed to hinder rather than help them.
Gaps appeared in midfield, runners weren’t tracked from deep and Kenny’s side were fortunate not to concede an equaliser.
Namik Alaskarov’s swirling shot that Bazunu turned away on 10 minutes was the first warning before towering defender Hojjat Haghverdi steered a couple of headers off-target moments apart. Twice Filip Ozobic also went close, veering her effort wide and finding Bazunu equal to his low drive after he’d ghosted into the box undetected. Robinson almost stemmed the tide with his volley that drifted over but the Azeris’ main threat, Emreli, also saw his long-range effort clear the crossbar.
Then came the killer second after 39 minutes. John Egan started the move on the hallway line by winning a tackle, laying the ball off for Horgan to pick out Robinson.
The striker slipped between two defenders to receive the pass, turned away to create room for himself and fired in a curler. Shakhban Magomedaliev stooped down to save with both hands but got neither to the attempt which flew under his grasp into the net.
It put Ireland in command and provided something to build on for the second half, rather than living on the edge.
Three minutes into the second half, an act of unselfishness by McClean to set up the unmarked Idah would surely have led to a third but he went for it himself and found his attempt blocked.
Robinson rippled the side-netting with a shot from an acute angle and saw his shot palmed away, either side of Duffy inexplicably heading wide from six yards.
Still, the Azeris stuck to their task and after Abbas Huseynov had his shot turned over by Bazunu, the Ireland goalkeeper did even better by pushing Gara Garayevs piledriver onto the crossbar.
: S Magomedaliev; M Medvedev, H Haghverdi, A Krivorsyk (R Dadasov 79); N Alaskarov (A Abdullayev 63), A Huseynov, E Mahmudov (R Sadikhov 86), G Garayev, F Ozobic; M Emreli, T Bayramov (R Sheydayev 63).
: G Bazunu; A Omobamidele, S Duffy, J Egan; M Doherty, J Cullen (C Hourihane 90+2), J Hendrick, D Horgan (J McGrath 46), J McClean; C Robinson (T Parrott 90+2), A Idah (C Ogbene 59).
: Espen Eskas (NOR)
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