Stephen Kenny calls for fire and ice from Ireland to repel France

Séamus Coleman and Callum O’Dowda are still in the mix for Monday night's big game, the Ireland boss says.

26 March 2023; Manager Stephen Kenny during a Republic of Ireland press conference at FAI Headquarters in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Stephen Kenny is not ready to rule Séamus Coleman and Callum O’Dowda out of Monday’s crunch Euro 2024 qualifier against the formidable French.

Ireland skipper Coleman (thigh) missed Wednesday’s friendly win over Latvia while fellow defender O’Dowda (groin) has emerged as a doubt following his goalscoring return to the team against the Baltic battlers.

The Cardiff City man sat out the last training session - the part open to the media, at least - meaning he is unlikely to face the World Cup runners-up.

Josh Cullen’s appearance at the pre-match press conference on Sunday morning, usually the preserve for the captain, raised fears over Coleman's fitness but be it mind games or not Kenny is keeping all his options open. Adam Idah is available following his layoff with a foot injury.

“I wouldn't like to get drawn into percentages but certainly Séamus is a very good player,” he said of his prospects.

“It's not so much his experience, it's that he's playing well himself at the moment.

“Experience is a factor, but his performances for Everton have been very good.

“For footballing reasons, he merits his place in the team because he has been playing very well for Everton and had an injury free run and been able to train regularly over the last number of months and performed very well for Everton.

“He is the captain of course, but we'll have to see on that.

"Callum O'Dowda is not ruled out (but) we will have to see how today goes in training.

“He’s picked up a groin strain so Robbie Brady joined the squad last night.

"Adam Idah is fully fit, he is ok, he is absolutely fully fit and ready to go."

"He comes into our plans. He trained well yesterday and he has been playing consistently for Norwich every week, so he comes back into the squad."

France arrive in Dublin today bouncing from Friday’s 4-0 humbling of top seeds Netherlands. Captain Kylian Mbappé was the star of the show, his brace swelling his goal haul to 38, overtaking Karim Benzema as the fifth highest scorer in French history.

The manager won’t be compromising his passing approach to avoid a similar mauling.

“We've been working on a way of playing for the last two years, very comfortable in possession, as comfortable as any team in Europe now as possession,” he asserted.

“Why would we change now? Why would we take a step back now? This is the time that the team needs to show conviction, when the lights come on in the Aviva and the atmosphere is rocking as it will ever be and as electric as it will ever be.

"And France, one of the best teams in the world coming at us, do we just suddenly change and not have the courage to do that? And just accept a slow death? Definitely not. And I think we'll show, and we'll need to show, fire and ice.

“We need to show fire, we need to have that level of tenacity in our play and aggression in our play but also have composure in possession and have that level of calm in our play in possession.

“And it's trying to combine the two. It's not easy, not easy against the best team in the world who are in formidable form as we saw the other night but that's the way we will definitely approach it."