'This game will be a war': Ireland and Armenia brace for high-stakes clash
“We must also have a Plan B, if we feel that we’re not creating enough," said Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson about his side's clash with Armenia. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
A giant screen that rolled onto the Ireland training ground yesterday confirmed there’s only one show in town for Heimir Hallgrímsson and his players.
No matter how many permutations are available through different channels, tuning into beating Armenia is all that matters.
One can assume the footage of Armenian joy in the reverse fixture last month was a hard watch for those part of the Yerevan wreckage.
Their words of hurt testify to that, as did the improvement in Lisbon on Saturday.
Sentiments and actions will be redundant unless they mould it into a victory over the group’s bottom side.
That’s more possible than probable based on recent evidence.
Saturday’s steely display away to Portugal could prove Armenia was an outlier, whereas the problems Armenia caused Hungary in boisterous Budapest at the weekend illustrated their growing maturity and confidence to upset the order.
One goal scored 11 minutes into the second half was the difference between the teams until stoppage time.
Captain Tigran Barseghyan went close to equalising before the Magyars broke in stoppage-time to plunder a second.
Armenia will be content to operate on the counterattack, as they did with devastating effect in the first meeting.
Four weeks on, Nathan Collins was still at a loss to explain the ineptness of that showing. “Football is mad; anything can happen,” was the best the skipper could rationalise.
The search for answers was reflected by a quiet dressing-room, both at half-time after the initial concession and afterwards when a fifth straight qualification failure seemed imminent.
It was curious that Ryan Manning was the one who spoke loudest about accepting responsibility. The returning Séamus Coleman is similarly minded when it comes to avoiding excuses.
Lessons from that humbling, when Ireland were overrun in midfield, could convince Hallgrímsson to retain the back-five formation he employed in Lisbon but the onus on the hosts to take the initiative will likely involve the Icelander’s default setting being mobilised.
“We needed preparation time to work on the back five in the lead-up to Portugal,” explained Hallgrímsson.
“It was only the second time in my reign, and the first since the first camp, to play that system.
“It's much easier to switch back to four - if we’re talking about those changes.
“If we were worried about that switch back, we would have used time before the Portugal game to plan for the next game after.
“There’s only really one session between the games. All that’s used for is checking player fitness, rather than tactics.” His subsequent on-pitch video session suggested otherwise.
A full house is expected by kick-off and the mood could turn pretty ugly if the team from the Caucasus repeats the feat by nudging ahead.
A single point from a possible nine in the first half campaign has Ireland playing catch-up from the foot of the table.
One win will alter the landscape, according to the manager, but it has also forced him to balance on the tightrope between sticking and twisting in front of a crowd pining for goals.
“Patience is important, not just only for us but also the media and fans, because sometimes they underestimate the opponent,” asserted Hallgrímsson.
“Too much patience is maybe not good because you must have urgency at times.
“We must also have a Plan B, if we feel that we’re not creating enough.”
One goal will do. It’s tempting to predict a series of outcomes from the run-in, many of which entail Ireland needing to win on the final day in Budapest – by more than the minimum margin.
How Hungary fare tonight, and Ireland next month, against Portugal will shape that conclusion but points, and making one after the Yerevan horror show, are the priorities.
“It could go down to one goal either way but we’re not thinking about that now,” emphasised Hallgrímsson.
“Losing only 1-0 to Portugal, when you look at it, could also be an important thing.
“Armenia will be thinking the same, so we need to be smart.”
In a tight group of four nations, stakes are of equal importance. Armenia’s manager feels Ireland will be a stiffer proposition to the fallible version they faced in the campaign’s second match.
"I understand Ireland’s motivation because we are both in the same situation after losing on Saturday,” proffered visiting boss Yegishe Melikyan in his Lansdowne Road press conference before declaring a rallying cry. “This game will be a war.”
They have designs of that runners-up spot too. Were they to emulate Ireland’s breakthrough of the 1980’s, it will be built in a similar core of ancestral recruits.
Eduard Spertsyan, the tormentor-in-chief of Ireland in the last two campaigns, was born in Stavropol, Russia and plays there.
Lucas Zelarayán, hailing from Córdoba, Argentina, was another component in the 2-1 victory while their latest convert, match-winner Grant-Leon Ranos Gehrden, is a native of Germany.
As opposed to Armenia attempting to write history, Ireland’s realistic aim in his perilous position is to avoid a video nasty. Time to raise the curtain on what Hallgrímsson considers his team’s belated premiere of this campaign.
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