Euro 2024: Kenny needs a miracle result

FOUR matches, three defeats, and the minor issue of facing the Netherlands at the Aviva tomorrow night, makes for difficult reading for Irish football fans and team boss Stephen Kenny, as Ireland’s qualification struggle does not get any easier.

Thursday’s Euro 2024 qualifier summed up the Kenny reign quite well. The side’s performance and shape was solid and professional. They did not look awestruck or overwhelmed by the quality of the side or the partisan venue. They defended well under some serious scrutiny, they moved the ball around well enough and even managed to scare the French on a couple of occasions, especially from the tireless Chiedozie Ogbene. But despite all the hard work from the side, the class of France was not to be denied, and rather frighteningly, the French never looked like they got out of second gear.

Cork's best

Arguably, the best of the Irish performances notably came from the Cork players in the team with John Egan doing his usual Herculean workload in defence. Alan Browne maintained the connections between midfield and the backs, while also tasked with the daunting chore, along with Nathan Collins, of controlling Kylian Mbappe, which they did to an impressive extent. Adam Idah did his best in the thankless role up front and put the French on the back foot on a few occasions, especially in the first half. And then there was man of the match for Ireland, Ogbene, who was everywhere for the first 60 minutes, claiming the ball in midfield and quickly turning on the French defence, then he’d pop up in the Irish box and rob the ball off Antoine Griezmann or Ousmane Dembele. Maybe he should have been rewarded with a goal for his second-half header only to see it stopped from the cat-like reflexes of Mike Maignan in the French goal.

Great but no points

It may not have been the clichéd Irish morale victory, but it still was a sturdy professional effort against the World Cup finalists jammed packed with amazing talent. But there is no overcoming the fact, that for all the great effort, it’s still just another defeat in a sequence of hard-luck results for Kenny and the Irish team.

The result is a good allegory of the Kenny tenure, which can be described as lucky off the field, while simultaneously unlucky on the field of play. There has been an understanding among the fans and pundits that Kenny was on a mission of rebuilding and so luckily received a degree of understanding and latitude for performances that no other Irish manager was afforded. Kenny’s results would have seen previous managers lose their position ages ago, but it is also understood that Kenny has had the misfortune of presiding over a transformation hit by covid firstly, and then the lack of a solid talent pool to avail of. Either through retirement, opting to play for England, or plain old injury, as was the frustrating case with Evan Ferguson most recently and with Seamus Coleman and Michael Obefemi, long term.

Miracle

Our poison chalice qualification group summed up the side’s continuing bad luck, selected in a group with the former world champions and World Cup finalists, along with two former European championship-winning sides, making the task of qualification seem nigh on impossible before we even started.

The Dutch game tomorrow, prior to Thursday’s fixtures, may have offered the Irish some hope, based on the Dutch side’s poor performance going down 4-0 to France in the opening qualifying match. But their comfortable 3-0 dismantling of Greece on Thursday leaves a rather ominous feeling for us.

After the hard and rather fruitless efforts in the stifling heat of the Parc des Princes, Ireland needs a change of luck again. Kenny’s future may depend on the team pulling out an extraordinary result against a big side. Can it happen tomorrow against the mighty Orange Machine?

As unlikely as it might seem, the time for an extraordinary result is now.