Horrific performance by Ireland sees them lose to Armenia and end their chance of World Cup qualification

Armenia 2

Republic of Ireland 1 

The Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign is already hanging by a thread following a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Armenia in Yerevan on Tuesday evening.

The great hope was that Heimir Hallgrimsson and his players would go one better than Saturday’s dramatic draw with Hungary at the Aviva Stadium, and they were undone by goals either side of half-time.

There was a strong Cork presence in the group with Caoimhin Kelleher, Jake O’Brien, and Chiedozie Ogbene all starting, and Adam Idah came off the bench at the interval.

The rush of blood following their manic comeback in front of a sold out crowd was there, with Finn Azaz and Evan Ferguson forcing Ognjen Chancharevich into early saves.

Armenia responded in the 35th minute with a neat ball over the top that Tigran Barseghyan picked up. 

Dara O’Shea slipped as he tried to close down space and that allowed a pass to go to Grant-Leon Ranos, who saw a close range attempt blocked by Nathan Collins and the rebound hit the crossbar.

This injected a new lease of life into the game, while Ireland retaliated with a shot on the edge of the box from Ferguson.

Armenia then took the lead, with a penalty won from a Collins challenge on Lucas Zelarayán. 

Eduard Spertsyan stepped up and despite Kelleher diving the right way, the hosts were able to take the lead in the dying seconds before the break.

Hallgrímsson reacted by making two changes at the break with Idah and Kasey McAteer replacing Jack Taylor and Ogbene, in a rejigged 4-4-2 formation tasked with pressing high.

There were signs of life with this system as they quickly worked together to put something together on the edge of the area, and it was broken down by a heavy Josh Cullen pass.

If this was the start of something, it ended with Ranos turning in a squared pass from Nayair Tiknizyan in the 51st minute to make it two nil.

Ireland hit back with a move starting with McAteer and linked by Idah to set up Ferguson for a curling finish to make the scoreboard read 2-1 in the 57th minute.

There was an offside check, which gave the goal after a small examination of the striker’s movement, and with that came the question of a repeat of Saturday’s heroics on home soil.

Armenia, unlike Hungary, did not sit back to protect their lead. 

This showed with efforts by Barseghyan and Tiknizyan midway through the second half, and on each occasion Kelleher was called in to action.

Ireland struggled to even get into this positions, as the clock counted down to the full-time whistle.

The only relief came from a goal by Artur Serobyan getting chalked off by VAR over an offside in the 88th minute.

Armenia: Ognjen Chancharevich; Erik Piloyan, Georgii Arutiunian, Sergei Muradian, Nayair Tiknizyan, Eduard Spertsyan, Ugochukwu Iwu, Kamo Hovhannisyan, Lucas Zelarayán, Tigran Barseghyan, Grant-Leon Ranos.

Subs: Vahan Bichakhchyan for Leon Ranos (66); Artur Serobyan for Zelarayan (78), Zhirayr Shaghoyan for Barseghyan (78).

Republic of Ireland: Caoimhin Kelleher; Nathan Collins, Ryan Manning, Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, Jake O’Brien, Jason Knight, Josh Cullen, Finn Azaz, Jack Taylor, Evan Ferguson, Chiedozie Ogbene.

Subs: Kasey McAteer for Ogbene (HT); Adam Idah for Taylor (HT), Mikey Johnston for Azaz (70), Killian Phillips for Cullen (70), Liam Scales for Knight (82).

Referee: Goga Kikacheishvili.