Stephen Kenny insists Ireland cannot afford to be distracted by the bigger challenge ahead of Ukraine when they face Armenia on Saturday in their Uefa Nations League opener.
Ukraine are within 90 minutes of reaching the World Cup following Wednesday’s impressive 3-1 win away to Scotland – ironically another of the B1 group nations.
In a congested end-of-season window, Ukraine meet Wales in Sunday’s World Cup playoff decider before travelling to the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday.
Ireland’s chances of reaching Qatar this November were ended over a year ago and their weekend assignment against the pool’s bottom seeds takes place in the low-key setting of Yerevan.
Stiflingly hot conditions of 30+ degrees greeted the Irish team on their arrival into the Armenia capital on Wednesday but the Ireland boss was playing it cool when it came to the plan of action.
He has already the team a target of topping their group and isn’t deviating from it despite watching Ukraine put months of anguish from the Russian invasion behind them to dominate the Scots. Benfica striker Roman Yaremchuk, whose header put them 2-0 ahead at Hampden Park, particularly impressed the Ireland boss.
“Ukraine were excellent in the game, really impressive,” said Kenny, who watched the game on television from their Yerevan base.
“We knew that as we have watched a lot of their games. They have a lot of really good technical players, easily able to change their midfield three.
“Yaremchuk is a really good centre-forward too and Ukraine deserved to win but Scotland probably didn’t play to their full potential.
“To be honest, we really must just focus on Armenia. Coming away from home, Armenia’s results have been up and down, but they have had some good home wins here against Iceland and Romania, two good teams.
“They won their last Uefa Nations League group over Georgia and North Macedonia to win promotion to League B so you have to respect that. This is the game we are fully focused on and trying to get ourselves ready for.” Meanwhile, Kenny’s latest No 3 coach, John Eustace, will link up with the squad on Thursday night after getting married.
The highly-regarded tutor was recruited by Kenny in time for the March friendlies against Belgium and Lithuania, replacing Anthony Barry who had filled in following the shock resignation of Damien Duff in January 2021.
“When John was appointed, he said the one problem he had was that his wedding was on (this week),” explained the manager.
“He had it all booked for this week in the Cotswolds and I said that was fine.
“John was with us for the first three days of the camp in Dublin and got a couple of days off.” Eustace's club situation is unclear. He has operated on the backroom staff at QPR since 2018 but they this week lured Steven Gerrard's assistant Michael Beale to Loftus Road as boss and it remains to be seen if he'll recruit new assistants.