EFFORT.. YEREVAN A LAUGH IRELAND
STEPHEN FINN
The Mirror
November 18, 2009 Wednesday
Ireland
Armenia U-21 4 Ireland U-21 1
DON GIVENS was at a loss to explain this nightmare display by his
Republic of Ireland under-21 side after they were blitzed by Armenia
in Yerevan yesterday.
The Irish have yet to win a game in their UEFA Under-21 Championship
qualifying group but Givens struggled to think of a worse result than
this loss in his 10-year reign.
Armenia had not previously won a game and this victory condemns
Ireland to bottom of Group Two with no wins in six games.
Hat-trick hero Henrikh Mkhitaryan proved too hot to handle for a badly
depleted Irish side missing the likes of Owen Garvan, Sean Scannell,
Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy.
"Disappointing doesn’t put into words how I feel about that
performance. It was unbelievably poor," said the Irish boss afterwards.
Metalurg Donetsk striker Mkhitaryan gave his side the lead on the
half-hour when he was set-up by Hovhannes Goharyan then evaded a
number of Irish defenders before slotting past keeper Shane Redmond.
Mkhitaryan increased the home lead in the 61st minute after a simple
one-two with Malakyan sent him through to fire past Redmond.
Cillian Sheridan gave Ireland hope four minutes later when he climbed
above keeper Edvard Hovhannisyan and headed home from a Seamus
Conneely 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.