Live Ireland v Armenia updates: Boys in Green in Yerevan for second World Cup qualifier

World Cup qualifiers: Armenia v Republic of Ireland, Republican Stadium, 5pm Irish time

Key reads

Ken Early: Time for Ireland to be aggressive – passivity has become a real problem

Heimir Hallgrímsson backs defensive selections amid Matt Doherty criticism

Dara O’Shea says Ireland ‘want to create history’

Incidentally, there’ll be no need for international football devotees to leave their couch for the evening - immediately after events in Yerevan, RTÉ2 has live coverage of the second game of our under-21’s Euro 2027 qualifying campaign. They play Andorra in Tallaght (kick-off 7.30) having won away to Moldova, thanks to a Mason Melia double, in their opening game last Thursday.

This is some read, from 2022, penned by our man Gordon. And no, it’s not the Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones.

Heimir Hallgrímsson’s pre-match thoughts...

Armenia manager Yegishe Melikyan, who took over from Dutch coach John van t’Schip just last month, has brought back first choice goalkeeper Ognjen Chancharevich after injury ruled him out of the defeat by Portugal. His stand-in, Henri Avagyan, is probably still traumatised after being peppered with Cristiano Ronaldo shots for 90-ish minutes.

Eduard Spertsyan, the man who scored the winner against Ireland in 2022, starts, as does Nigerian-born midfielder Ugochukwu Iwu who, like Spertsyan, plays his club football in Russia. Also included is Lucas Zelarayán who has a heck of a commute to turn out for Armenia - the number 10 plays in his native Argentina with Club Atlético Belgrano. German-born Grant-Leon Ranos starts up front.

We’re going with Uefa’s formation for Armenia here, but seeing as they have Ogbene playing up front with Ferguson and Manning positioned at right-back for Ireland, we’re not entirely confident about its accuracy.

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

Heimir Hallgrímsson has made two changes to the side that drew with Hungary. One of them is enforced, Chiedozie Ogbene coming in for the injured Sammie Szmodics, while Matt Doherty is dropped after his less than stellar performance at left-back on Saturday. Ryan Manning, presumably, drops back in to defence to replace him, with Jack Taylor coming in on either the wing or just behind Evan Ferguson - we’ll see.

Ireland: Kelleher; O’Brien, Collins, O’Shea, Manning; Ogbene, Cullen, Knight, Taylor; Azaz; Ferguson.

Subs: Bazunu, Travers, Dunne, Scales, Lawal, Phillips, Doherty, Honohan, Johnston, McAteer, Idah, Kenny.

Team news!

It’ll be a balmy evening in Yerevan, the temperatures at kick-off (8pm local time, 5pm Irish time) expected to be around the 24 degree mark. Imagine living in a country where there’s zero chance of rain?

Up to 500-ish hardy Irish souls have made the trip, Google Maps telling us it would have taken them 33 days - until we realised that’s by foot. Mercifully, the Irish squad travelled there on a chartered flight - but even that took five hours.

Good afternoon, have you recovered from Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Hungary yet? We’ll just have to hope that Heimir Hallgrímsson’s men have because at 5.0 this afternoon they kick off against Armenia in Yerevan in the second game of their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. And they could really do with a win.

Group favourites Portugal, who are away to Hungary at 7.45 this evening, dished out a 5-0 hiding to Armenia on Saturday at the Vazgen Sargsyan anvan Hanrapetakan Marzadasht, surely one of the lengthier venue names in world football? (It’s named in honour of Vazgen Sargsyan, the Armenian prime minister who was assassinated in 1999).

Ireland are ranked 45 places above Armenia in the Fifa list, so you’d think this should be a breeze. But - and apologies for the reminder - the last time they visited Yerevan, Stephen Kenny the gaffer at the time, they lost 1-0 in their 2022 Nations League meeting. And they only won the return game in Dublin 3-2 thanks to a 91st minute Robbie Brady penalty.

Sensibly, then, Hallgrímsson insisted yesterday that “we should respect Armenia - it’s like Iceland when we go to the Eurovision: we always think we have the best song, but we never go through to the final”.

Ireland have only qualified for two of the last 11 Eurovision Song Contest finals, and just three of the last 11 World Cups. So we’re the last to take these things for granted.

Click here to read article