Finn Azaz: 'We just exchanged words, and then he’s just come in with a headbutt'

Following a heated exchange with Tigran Barseghyan on the touchline, the Southampton playmaker was sent tumbling to ground, having felt the force of the Armenian number 11’s already bandaged head. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Finn Azaz was involved in the decisive moment that swung the match in the Republic of Ireland’s direction against Armenia, although it wasn’t in quite the way he would have hoped.

Following a heated exchange with Tigran Barseghyan on the touchline, the Southampton playmaker was sent tumbling to ground, having felt the force of the Armenian number 11’s already bandaged head.

“We had some back and forth and, kind of, had a physical battle, that was the aim going into the game,” began Azaz.

“It was one of those things, the emotions of the game, I think I won a throw-in, and we just exchanged words, and then he’s just come in with a headbutt. But it didn’t hurt so it was alright.

“I felt the contact. I think the adrenaline is why it didn’t hurt, maybe in an hour, my head is going to be throbbing. It’s not throbbing now. But I mean I felt it was a proper headbutt. I wasn’t playacting.

“You could probably see it on the video that I’m not pretending to get headbutted. Otherwise, it would have got looked at and he wouldn’t have got sent off so…yeah.

“It was a tough game, it changed the game, so the main thing is we got the win.” 

Ireland had been struggling up until that point, but they soon took over with the man advantage and they eventually netted the only goal of the game through Evan Ferguson 19 minutes later.

Despite the much-needed victory, Ireland still have a tough task to secure a playoff spot for next summer’s World Cup in North America thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s late equaliser away to Portugal, which came just a few days after Ireland conceded a significant late goal in Lisbon themselves.

“I don’t think we’re looking at the goal difference. We’re more disappointed with the goal in Portugal, a point there would have been really nice, kind of looking at points,” added the 25-year-old, looking ahead to the final two Group F qualifiers at home to Portugal and away to Hungary next month.

“But at the end of the day, we’ve got to get a result against Portugal now in the next one.

“They (Portugal) are a good team, but we saw when we played against them that they are humans and we can certainly compete, but we’ve got to take that to the next level and get a result next month, it’s that simple.

“We’ll take confidence from these two games; I think the solidness and defensiveness has been really, really good.

“We should have scored more today as well. So, all eyes on next month.

“We’ll be looking at those two and feeling we can definitely do that (win both games).

“You know, got to take confidence and we know what we have to do now.”