A defiant Stephen Kenny is refusing to ponder his place regardless of seeing the Republic of Eire’s Euro 2024 qualification hopes ripped aside by the Netherlands.
Three days after a 2-0 defeat by Group B leaders France in Paris left them dealing with the purpose of no return, Eire went down 2-1 to the Dutch in Dublin to successfully slip out of competition for a top-two end.
Kenny, who was adamant within the build-up to the sport that he nonetheless anticipated to be in cost for subsequent month’s double-header in opposition to Greece and Gibraltar no matter occurred on Sunday night, remained simply as decided within the wake of a heart-breaking defeat.
Requested about his future, he mentioned: “Hear from my viewpoint, I’m not occupied with that now. I’m simply very dissatisfied that we are able to’t end within the prime two within the group. I’m simply very, very dissatisfied with that and it’s gut-wrenching that we are able to’t, ?
“I feel France are the very best group on the planet, up a degree. Holland are in all probability not on the degree of France, however they’re nonetheless… Argentina beat them within the World Cup on penalties.
“They’ve a number of world-class gamers, however it’s nonetheless one which if you take the lead like we did, you’re able to successful. However we didn’t defend effectively sufficient total to do this.”
Kenny’s males may hardly have gotten off to a greater begin when, having already brought about panic within the Dutch defence, they had been awarded a fourth-minute penalty for handball by Virgil van Dijk.
Adam Idah, who had solely beforehand scored one senior worldwide objective – and that in opposition to Gibraltar in June – dispatched the ensuing spot-kick with the arrogance of a person with a much more spectacular document and the locals amongst a crowd of 49,807 dared to imagine.
Nonetheless, a defensive lapse allowed Denzel Dumfries via on objective and when he went down underneath keeper Gavin Bazunu’s problem, Cody Gakpo was equally decisive from 12 yards.
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Eire gave pretty much as good as they obtained earlier than the break, prompting Ronald Koeman to ship on Wout Weghorst and Tijjani Reijnders earlier than the restart, and it was Weghorst who scored what proved to be the winner inside 11 minutes when he transformed from Dumfries’ knock-down.
Requested in regards to the strain on his shoulders, Kenny mentioned: “There’s strain on, strain from ourselves as a result of we had been determined to enter the October window nonetheless very a lot within the hunt.
“We had been determined to do this, so there’s that strain from inside ourselves, so we’re dissatisfied with that, actually dissatisfied with that.
“From our viewpoint, we’ve Greece and Gibraltar to organize for in October, which is only some weeks away, and Holland, so we have now to complete the group strongly and see if we have now a play-off [via the Nations League] in March then. We’re unsure about that.”
Koeman admitted he was removed from pleased on the break, however delighted with the best way his gamers responded to his half-time message.
He mentioned: “The beginning was actually poor. We anticipated excessive urgent from the Irish group, however we misplaced many balls in our possession and we didn’t have management within the recreation.
“After 20, 25 minutes, it was a bit of bit extra calmed down and the choice at half-time to alter the system to play 4 on the again was an excellent resolution.
“After half-time, we managed the sport. Solely within the final 10 minutes, perhaps they introduced the identical urgent, however they didn’t create any likelihood to attain and we defended effectively within the final a part of the sport, and at last I feel it’s a good consequence.”