The Republic of Ireland will hope to back up their 3-0 win over Scotland with a result away to Ukraine this evening in their fourth Nations League game. Kick-off in the LKS Stadium, Łódź in Poland is at 7.45pm.
Ireland put in fine performance on Saturday defeating the Scots at the Aviva. Alan Browne put them ahead after 20 minutes. Troy Parrott doubled Ireland’s advantage eight minutes later heading past Craig Gordon after a beautiful over the top ball from Michael Obafemi and a stunning strike from Obafemi in the 50th minute had the Lansdowne Road crowd in raptures.
In a huge blow for Ireland, Obafemi, who was man of the match in that game, has been ruled out of this game through injury. Manager Stephen Kenny is already without the injured Seamus Coleman and Matt Doherty, Shane Duffy is suspended while John Egan is unavailable due to family reasons. QPR defender Jimmy Dunne has been called into the squad.
Speaking to the press after the Scotland game Kenny said: “It wasn’t perfect. We are still a work in progress. For the first five days of our camp we practiced playing like that because that’s new for us because we know the 3-4-2 really well. Players are still learning. The front two performed brilliantly as a pair. That was encouraging.”
Ukraine will want to make it three wins from three in this group. They defeated Ireland last Wednesday in Dublin; Viktor Tsygankov’s goal the difference between the sides. They followed that up with a 3-0 win over Armenia in Łódź on Saturday.
Ukrainian manager Oleksandr Petrakov has had the luxury of being able to rest players and give fringe players a chance in those two games.
In his pre-match press conference in Poland Stephen Kenny admitted his side face a tough task against Ukraine. “We know we’re up against it, we’re going to have to put in a really, really strong performance and the players can take confidence from Saturday.
“There are several changes, enforced changes, but certainly the spirit is good in the group. We’ll have to be at our best tomorrow night, we know that.” said the Dubliner.
Deniese O'Flaherty
Deniese is a freelance sports journalist/broadcaster. She has worked for several local and national media outlets. GAA and soccer are her great loves and she also follows rugby league and snooker. She's a big supporter of her local clubs St. Mary's GAA Granard and Longford Town. She also follows Celtic, Liverpool and Leeds Rhinos. She presented and produced a popular sports podcast last year where she interviewed Ray Houghton, Chris Kamara and John Hartson. Deniese is currently Head of Communications for Boccia Ireland