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Stephen Kenny Had Bizarrely Positive Reading Of Shambolic Ireland Performance

Stephen Kenny Had Bizarrely Positive Reading Of Shambolic Ireland Performance
Eoin Harrington
By Eoin Harrington
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We said it after Luxembourg, after Armenia, and after the return fixture in Athens, and many across Ireland will be saying the same again this weekend - the Stephen Kenny era has hit a new low.

Friday night's 2-0 home defeat to Greece officially ended Ireland's chances of qualifying automatically for EURO 2024 and, with play-off hopes hanging by the slimmest of threads, it is safe to say that the national team will not be appearing at the championships in Germany.

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After being drawn in the group of death, hopes of automatic qualification were always slim for Kenny's Ireland. There was certainly no shame in losing to France in the manner in which they did, while the Dutch defeat at the Aviva last month will linger as a "what if?" moment of Kenny's reign in charge.

But this campaign will ultimately be remembered by the pair of games against Greece, arguably the two worst performances we have seen from Ireland under Stephen Kenny, and the two defeats which may have sealed the manager's fate.

However, despite a performance which had virtually no positives, Kenny was typically buoyant in his press conference after the game, suggesting that he felt Ireland were unlucky not to win.

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Stephen Kenny misses the mark with press conference comments after Ireland v Greece

Greece were not exceptionally brilliant at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night - but perhaps the most damning indictment you could give of Ireland was that the Greek side did not need to be in order to take an exceptionally comfortable win.

The Irish team was sorely lacking in creativity and defensive stability, conceding on the first two occasions they were challenged in a meaningful way, and failing to conjure up anything in the way of a decent response.

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All of which makes Stephen Kenny's post-match comments even more jarring.

 

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During his post-match press conference, Kenny said that he believed Ireland had started well, and suggested that he felt their performance warranted more than they had gotten:

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I think we started really well, had a couple of chances. They had a period where they got on top and controlled the game...for the first [goal] you need not to give that free header away.

We had a lot of play then towards the end of the first half, particularly down the right-hand side. Our high press, Jason Knight intercepts, you're thinking he's in on goal, just a heavy touch took it away. Liam Scales whips it across the front, Chiedozie Ogbene you think he's going to gamble and just put that in, and it doesn't quite happen.

We had a lot of shots just going wide from our midfield players, we were looking for just a bit more accuracy from that point of view.

I think set plays maybe weren't of the quality we would have wanted...obviously then we concede on the 45th minute. It was a killer for us to concede that goal. We were having a good period in the game.

2-0 at half-time is difficult. But I actually thought we played well second half for long periods. Ball retention was good, we dominated. There were a lot of crosses because they were a little bit deeper, but they defended their box very well.

We had chances, we had saves off the line. We missed the target a few times as well on strikes.

It wasn't enough. It's a disappointing night, and a disappointing result. Greece were clinical at taking their opportunities. We weren't.

The comments were jarring, and did not equate with what most saw on the pitch in Dublin on Friday, with swathes of the home supporters leaving before the final ten minutes, and boos ringing around the Aviva Stadium at half- and full-time.

Stephen Kenny has had a tendency at points during his reign to deflect attention away from poor performances, and his comments on Friday night were arguably the most bizarre yet from the Ireland manager.

One feels that the shambles against Greece on Friday night may be the last time the Aviva Stadium crowd sees Kenny take charge of a competitive Ireland international, with the side now purely playing for pride in the EURO 2024 qualifiers.

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