Ogbene expecting 'difficult game' in must-win Armenia showdown

The sides face off at Lansdowne Road on Tuesday night. 

LATE SHOW: Ireland's Caoimhin Kelleher and Chiedozie Ogbene dejected after the game. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Shortly after the Republic of Ireland’s heartbreaking loss to Portugal in Lisbon on Saturday night, thoughts quickly turned to facing Armenia in Dublin on Tuesday.

Ireland were minutes away from claiming a valuable point at the home of Sporting Lisbon until Rúben Neves struck in injury time to leave the Boys in Green languishing at the bottom of Group F on just one point after three games.

With just three qualifiers remaining, there is very little – if any - room for error if Ireland are to reach the World Cup in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico next summer, making Armenia at the Aviva a must-win.

“No, no. Listen, Tuesday will be as difficult,” began Chiedozie Ogbene, who was withdrawn at half-time during Ireland’s 2-1 loss to the Armenians in Yerevan last month.

“Let me not lie to you here now thinking that we're going to go and get an easy result against Armenia. It's going to be a difficult game.

“They're going to come to our place. They know the pitch is big, so they're going to make it as frustrating as possible, especially knowing that they've beaten us in their home pitch.

“It's going to be a difficult game. We'll just have to find ways to break it down. It'll be a different dynamic from the game that we played away from home.

“I don't think we all went in there thinking Armenia was going to be easy. I've played in Armenia before, and we lost 1-0. I knew it was going to be a difficult game, especially away from home.

“It would be arrogant of me to go to Armenia and think we're going to win that game. These are international players. To be an international player, you need to know what you're doing.

“Maybe from the leagues that we're playing in, we back ourselves to go there and get the job done.

“Maybe reality hit that. Maybe we need to be as disciplined as we can with Portugal, Armenia, whoever we play. It's a life lesson.

“We have to finish on a high. We have to, in any way possible, get three points on Tuesday to give ourselves the best chance going into November. That's just the reality of it. That's what we're going to look to do.”