Armenia 0 – 1 Republic of Ireland
Credit:
The Republic of Ireland’s 2012 European Championship qualification campaign got off to a winning start on Friday night in a performance that strangely mirrored manager Giovanni Trapattoni’s delivery of the English language; often disjointed, at times stuttering but essentially with a purpose and eventually made it’s point thanks to substitute Keith Fahey’s solitary 76th minute strike.
The visitors certainly deserved their victory in Yerevan on the balance of play though it looked like the game may have been heading towards a disappointing draw, or worse, until Fahey’s late intervention.
Irish Captain Robbie Keane played an important part in the build up to the goal and would have been particularly grateful for the Birmingham City man’s goal as Keane himself had passed up a couple of chances that the travelling Irish supporters could well have been left to rue.
Latching on to an eighth minute Kevin Doyle flick-on the Skipper lacked his usual finesse in front of goal and lashed his volley just wide of goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky’s left-hand post and would have been equally disappointed to see a linesman’s flag cut short his goal celebrations later in the half, adjudged to have been in an offside position when receiving a 35th minute through ball.
Sean St Ledger also threatened the Armenian goal in the opening exchanges directing a powerful header goalward from Aiden McGeady’s in-swinging corner but Berezovsky was well positioned and palmed the effort over his cross-bar.
The half’s main talking point however came in the 40th minute when Keane, at the centre of much of the first half action, felt he was tripped en route to goal but Hungarian referee Zsolt Szabo waved away the Irish protestations and the teams went in for the half-time break scoreless.
While Trapattoni’s men were in the ascendency for long periods of the game, their hosts were always in the contest at nil all and often looked threatening on the counter-attack but despite not being good enough for Manchester City, Shay Given is invaluable to the Irish cause and was always on hand to snuff out anything the Armenian’s dared to conjure up.
Irish fans could have been forgiven for wondering if they were going to score at all when record goal scorer Keane found himself clean through with only the keeper to beat but again mishit his effort and his left foot shot struck the base of the host’s upright on 62.
Still, Keane’s clever movement and the pressing of the tireless Doyle presented Fahey with an opportunity which he slotted home with minimum fuss to net his first goal for Ireland in only his fourth appearance for his country.
The inevitable pressure came from world’s 96th ranked side but the Irish back-line held to firm to collect an equally hard earned and crucial three points on the road to Poland and Ukraine.
Armenia: Berezovsky, Hovsepyan, Arzumanyan, Karlen Mkrtchyan, Arakelian, Grigorian, Artur Edigaryan, Malakyan, Pachajyan, Movsisyan, Mkhitaryan.
Subs not used: Kasparov, Hambardzumyan, Pizelli, Goharyan, Manoyan, Manucharyan, Mkoyan.
Republic of Ireland: Given, O'Shea, St. Ledger, Dunne, Kilbane, Lawrence, Whelan, Green, McGeady (Fahey ’67), Keane (Keogh ’84), Doyle.
Subs not used: Westwood, Kelly, Gibson, Cunningham, Sheridan.
Referee: Zsolt Szabo (Hungary)
Man of the Match: Kevin Doyle
The visitors certainly deserved their victory in Yerevan on the balance of play though it looked like the game may have been heading towards a disappointing draw, or worse, until Fahey’s late intervention.
Irish Captain Robbie Keane played an important part in the build up to the goal and would have been particularly grateful for the Birmingham City man’s goal as Keane himself had passed up a couple of chances that the travelling Irish supporters could well have been left to rue.
Latching on to an eighth minute Kevin Doyle flick-on the Skipper lacked his usual finesse in front of goal and lashed his volley just wide of goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky’s left-hand post and would have been equally disappointed to see a linesman’s flag cut short his goal celebrations later in the half, adjudged to have been in an offside position when receiving a 35th minute through ball.
Sean St Ledger also threatened the Armenian goal in the opening exchanges directing a powerful header goalward from Aiden McGeady’s in-swinging corner but Berezovsky was well positioned and palmed the effort over his cross-bar.
The half’s main talking point however came in the 40th minute when Keane, at the centre of much of the first half action, felt he was tripped en route to goal but Hungarian referee Zsolt Szabo waved away the Irish protestations and the teams went in for the half-time break scoreless.
While Trapattoni’s men were in the ascendency for long periods of the game, their hosts were always in the contest at nil all and often looked threatening on the counter-attack but despite not being good enough for Manchester City, Shay Given is invaluable to the Irish cause and was always on hand to snuff out anything the Armenian’s dared to conjure up.
Irish fans could have been forgiven for wondering if they were going to score at all when record goal scorer Keane found himself clean through with only the keeper to beat but again mishit his effort and his left foot shot struck the base of the host’s upright on 62.
Still, Keane’s clever movement and the pressing of the tireless Doyle presented Fahey with an opportunity which he slotted home with minimum fuss to net his first goal for Ireland in only his fourth appearance for his country.
The inevitable pressure came from world’s 96th ranked side but the Irish back-line held to firm to collect an equally hard earned and crucial three points on the road to Poland and Ukraine.
Armenia: Berezovsky, Hovsepyan, Arzumanyan, Karlen Mkrtchyan, Arakelian, Grigorian, Artur Edigaryan, Malakyan, Pachajyan, Movsisyan, Mkhitaryan.
Subs not used: Kasparov, Hambardzumyan, Pizelli, Goharyan, Manoyan, Manucharyan, Mkoyan.
Republic of Ireland: Given, O'Shea, St. Ledger, Dunne, Kilbane, Lawrence, Whelan, Green, McGeady (Fahey ’67), Keane (Keogh ’84), Doyle.
Subs not used: Westwood, Kelly, Gibson, Cunningham, Sheridan.
Referee: Zsolt Szabo (Hungary)
Man of the Match: Kevin Doyle
About Eoin Manning
Eoin Manning has been a part of the extratime.ie reporting team since 2009 and covers the Dublin clubs. Eoin also writes for many of the countries national newspapers and can be contacted at eoinpmanning@gmail.com View Full Profile