ARMENIANS PUT FOUR PAST IRISH
The Irish Times
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
Ireland
UNDER-21 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP/Armenia 4 Republic of Ireland 1: THE
REPUBLIC of Ireland Under-21 side slipped to the bottom of their Uefa
Championships qualifying group after this heavy defeat in Yerevan
yesterday. Don Givens’ side have yet to win a game in this campaign
after six attempts.
Armenia were the basement side in the group, but a hat-trick by Henrikh
Mkhitaryan helped them leap-frog an Ireland side missing key players
Owen Garvan, Seán Scannell and James McCarthy.
"It was by far the worst performance I can remember given the ranking
of the opposition. It’s as poor as I’ve been involved with," said
Givens.
Mkhitaryan first found the net on the half-hour after collecting a
pass from Hovhannes Goharyan before slotting home past goalkeeper
Shane Redmond.
The Metalurg Donetsk striker made it 2-0 in the 61st minute after a
one-two with Edgar Malakyan carved open the defence.
Cillian Sheridan gave Ireland hope four minutes later when he jumped
above goalkeeper Edvard Hovhannisyan and headed home Séamus Conneely’s
cross.
Bate Borisov striker Goharyan finished the game off 10 minutes later
after he fired into the top corner following a swift counterattack.
Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the penalty spot after Malakyan was taken
down by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute.
ARMENIA: Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan, 73 mins), Arakelyan,
Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan (Ghazaryan, 76 mins)
Lazarian, Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan, 90 mins), Mkhitaryan.
IRELAND: Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson,
Conneely, Carey (Clifford, 46 mins), O’Shea, Collins (Madden, 66
mins), Sheridan.