Armenia v Republic of Ireland - Tuesday, 9 September 2025 - 2026 World Cup Qualifier

[the 12 th man]

Lucky to be 0-0 so far.

[Kingdom]

Jaysus, big let off there

This is far more first half of Hungary/entire of Luxembourg than second half of Hungary

I've said this in recent times. I think long-ball football is redundant in this day and age, but if it's going to be the tactic - then it has to be all-in chaos football, and I'll be ok with that. It cannot be half-in, half-out and picking a team trying to do both; pick both Ferguson and Idah and launch it to them appropriately and compress the pitch. Their chance came from Cheap Ball Cullen just pumping a ball 60 yds to nothing and it coming straight back with us off-guard. It's ****ing frustrating.

[passinginterest]

Well this is gone bad to worse. Must have been 15 long throws in the two games so far. Don’t think we’ve even had a half chance off one. Pure crap and a waste of time and effort.

[backstothewall]

Collins again. FFS

[Colbert Report]

Very harsh decision.

[backstothewall]

Very harsh decision.

He didn't get a touch on the ball. He brought the man down. It's a penalty.

[brine3]

Didn't want to go to America anyway

[Jd2793]

disgrace. HH should be gone at ft.

[pineapple stu]

He didn't get a touch on the ball. He brought the man down. It's a penalty.

Yeah, I think so

And Kingdom's post about all-in or not is spot on.

This is ****e so far

[Colbert Report]

We're in major trouble here. Not sure what the answer is; we just don't have the players.

[Eirambler]

It's incredible how much less than the sum of our parts we are out there. We have considerably better players than Armenia in every position, but you'd never know it watching the game. We just look lost.

45 minutes to save the campaign...

[Jd2793]

We're in major trouble here. Not sure what the answer is; we just don't have the players.

sorry but we have the players to beat armenia no question about that. nearly all of their squad play in armenia ffs

[the 12 th man]

633 Irish fans made the camel hike for this..

[Razors left peg]

Its fcukin hard being a fan of this team

[SkStu]

Awful harsh call. But no more than we deserved. We have made these guys look decent and have been so toothless. Collins (again!), Azaz and Ogbene have completely stunk the place out. I knew at 25 mins it was going down this path. Letting them into it, pass by pass. Sucker punch but they deserved it. F**K OFF.

[Eirambler]

We're in major trouble here. Not sure what the answer is; we just don't have the players.

The north have a far weaker squad than us. But you just know they'd go to Armenia and find a way to win.

[SkStu]

45 minutes to save the campaign...

a familiar mantra

[Colbert Report]

sorry but we have the players to beat armenia no question about that.

How would you send them out differently for the second half? We are sorely lacking in midfield. Collins is getting slated but he's on his own back there, he's basically forced to hit the wingers with long diagonal balls because we have nobody capable of creating anything in the middle of the park.

[osarusan]

Penalty looked harsh enough to me but few complaints from Collins so I guess not.

Any positive momentum from the first 15 minutes or so had long evaporated abyway, and Armenia had come right into the game.

Dreadful shapeless stuff, just rudderless.

[Philly]

We could be 2 down too.

Rough going.

I think we need to bring on Johnston, as right now we really struggle to run at them. Endless poor crosses won't cut it.

Hard to see where we get 2 goals from though...

[Jd2793]

HH got a soft ride in the media after the comeback saturday. it was all down to the red card. it'll be interesting to see will damo delaney, keith tracey and the likes come out with some criticism for him here after this 45 mins.

[the 12 th man]

Do we not practice long throws to gauge distance?,every single long throw so far is either short of or past every Irish player...FFS

[The Fly]

It’s not that we don’t have the players. We just don’t have the centre midfielders…please God can one (or two, or three) emerge quite soon!? :excruciating:

[Eirambler]

How would you send them out differently for the second half? We are sorely lacking in midfield. Collins is getting slated but he's on his own back there, he's basically forced to hit the wingers with long diagonal balls because we have nobody capable of creating anything in the middle of the park.

Get Taylor deeper, Azaz central and get Johnston on. Our setup on the teamsheet looked decent, but the way they were put out on the pitch made no sense.

Having said that, this goes beyond selection and setup now. There's a serious mentality issue with this team, it's a team full of club captains, yet we have no real hard-nosed leaders out there.

[Razors left peg]

Time to bring on Matt Doherty to save the day!!!

[SkStu]

That pitch wont bring the best out of Johnston but I thought he should have started.

Ogbene, imho, killed the momentum we had shown in the first 15-20 with a litany of bad decisions, bad touches and bad passes. Thats the sort of stuff that saps your own team and gives the other guys hope. Its not entirely down to him, theres 11 on the pitch, but fck me is it frustrating.

[Nesta99]

We are just awful when we turn over possession, its always a last ditch scramble, missed tackles or takcle/hoofing a ball but managing to kicking against the attacker. When we are turned by a pretty basic ball over the top its mayhem. Going forward well I dont recall much, 50/50 balls that we are not winning and 2nd to a breaking ball.

[ifk101]

Brutal stuff. Looks like we are far too stretched out, need to be more compact to get combinations going. Could do with moving the whole team higher up the pitch and pressing.

Last 45 mins for HH.

[pineapple stu]

It’s not that we don’t have the players. We just don’t have the centre midfielders…please God can one (or two, or three) emerge quite soon!? :excruciating:
Surely there's only so much we can blame on a midfield of Cullen/Knight?

The problems here are bigger than midfield I think. The whole thing is completely disjointed

[Eirambler]

I feel like we're more likely to concede a chance from a Jake O'Brien long throw than create one.

[Insidetherock]

Harsh decision or not, the penalty is down to septic defending by a player who's so composed for Brentford, but often looks like Bambi on ice for Ireland..

But, the ball should never have been in the box.. Manning won a tackle at the edge, ran forward, and passed it to an Armenian midfielder who with one pass left Manning and Azaz out of the game... then Collins ****ed up

But overall.. Josh Cullen does nothing.. nothing in the middle.. he's no presence whatsoever

Chedozie, God love him, is still the same player as he was when I first seen him playing against Cashel Town for Cork u19s.. a really fast runner. But nothing else.. absolute fair play to him for making a career as a footballer

Jake O Brien on throws.. its pathetic.. absolutely pathetic.. for a number of reasons

1. If you're going to use long throws as a tactic, have your tallest player in the box receiving.. not throwing

2. His throw isn't particularly long. Seriously, Megan Campbell throws further for the womens team, and hers actually cause chaos, unlike O Briens

3. Because if you want an effective throw, its got to be fast and flat. O Briens are big looping throws into the air, that are meat and drink to a defender.. Delaps throws in the past, were fast and flat so attackers didnt need to generate power, simply get a flick on. Even if we were winning the throw, there's no power on them

Corner kicks.. long loops over the top, with Ogbene deployed to nod back across.. more waste of time

I really want this team to do well.. but f**k me they'd test you

[SkStu]

The Armenian game plan is so simple. Focused on our defensive line. Press the fck out of them when they have the ball and cut off the outside. When they have it, turn the Irish defensive line - balls into channels. Looks like we expected them to concede the ball and put in a low block.

[nigel-harps1954]

The long throws are utterly baffling. We've hardly created a half chance out of any of them over two games, yet we continue to aimlessly throw the ball into the box to nobody.

Ogbene should be first taken off, at half time. Doesnt matter if the pitch is brutal, Johnston should be offered a chance to run at them now. Taylor for Idah should be given food for thought as well and have two big lads up top and allow them to play off one another and go back to basics.

[Razors left peg]

This is starting to feel like hanging on to an abusive relationship, just hoping that someday it'll eventually change

[SkStu]

The long throws are utterly baffling. We've hardly created a half chance out of any of them over two games, yet we continue to aimlessly throw the ball into the box to nobody.

Ogbene should be first taken off, at half time. Doesnt matter if the pitch is brutal, Johnston should be offered a chance to run at them now. Taylor for Idah should be given food for thought as well and have two big lads up top and allow them to play off one another and go back to basics.

Great shout Nige. McAteer instead of Johnston but you called the switches.

[Eirambler]

There have been a lot of calls for Taylor in recent months. Let's be honest, he was a disaster today. Molumby should never have been dropped from the squad.

[Razors left peg]

There have been a lot of calls for Taylor in recent months. Let's be honest, he was a disaster today. Molumby should never have been dropped from the squad.

Yep I was one calling for him and he was crap. Right subs at ht

[Eirambler]

Armenia are crap by the way. Absolute crap.

Just look at their recent results:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia_national_football_team

[rebelmusic]

Yep I was one calling for him and he was crap. Right subs at ht

I was the other and I hold my hands up as well. Better as an impact sub

[pineapple stu]

Ah **** me

[Colbert Report]

Caught totally napping.

[Fixer82]

This is so bad. Armenia are truly awful

[passinginterest]

Sweet Jesus. Azaz is like a lad you’d target for his awful touch in a united churches league division 3 game. The shape is non-existent. If that’s offside we’re blessed.

[the 12 th man]

There are no words

[Crosby87]

We are so, so bad. It would hurt but my expectations are zero.

It's just Charlie Brown and Lucey with the football over and over

[rebelmusic]

Right. I'll be opening a pop up stall selling rotten vegetables outside Dublin airport tomorrow for those interested

[SkStu]

Goodnight lads. Embarrassing.

[pineapple stu]

So, Portugal next month yeah?

[Eirambler]

So does John O'Shea come back in right away, or after the campaign?

Either way we're screwed.

[fc hammer]

Taxi for the dentist