\n 2026 World Cup qualifier: Armenia 2 (Eduard Spertsyan 45+2 pen Grant-Leon Ranos 51) Ireland (Evan Ferguson 57)\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Seven days of hope followed by dejection.<\/p>\n
We should know by now that false optimism leads to hurt.<\/p>\n
That this latest surrender was at the scene of recent previous implosion compounds the anguish.<\/p>\n
Armenia are ranked 105 in the world for a reason.<\/p>\n
Dutch legend John van ‘t Schip is only four weeks out of their managerial job after a mere four games in charge.<\/p>\n
His sin was failing to arrest a slide which included defeats to Faroe Islands, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Georgia in the past year.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t perform like a team of that lowly status before a raucous crowd but much of that was down to Ireland\u2019s abjectness.<\/p>\n
Players and staff chimed in chorus about ending the 24-year World Cup drought all through last week. That message was amplified by the manner of them salvaging a point against second seeds Hungary on Saturday.<\/p>\n
It was the first time since 1982 that Ireland had recovered from a two-goal deficit to eke out a result. Goals either side of half-time by Eduard Spertsyan and Grant-Leon Ranos meant the historic feat would have to be repeated.<\/p>\n
There would be no sequel when the heat was on in balmy Yerevan. Teams cannot afford to leave themselves with such an ascent, especially when so outplayed in midfield.<\/p>\n
Evan Ferguson halving the arrears gave Ireland a half hour to complete the rescue act but instead it was the Armenians finishing the game on the attack. They were denied a third by a marginal offside call made by VAR.<\/p>\n
Credit was afforded to Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson for predicting with such certainty that Ireland would be heading to North America next year for the expanded World Cup but his confidence was frozen by this bombshell.<\/p>\n
It will take the Armenians repeating this gutsy display against Hungary, plus Ireland picking up points off the Magyars and top seeds Portugal, for a lifeline to be retrieved in this blitz of a six-game qualification sprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a little lost for words,\u201d said the Icelander. \u201cIt was so unlike us in so many ways – both defensively open and indecisive and on the ball too many mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many players had an off day today and against a good team like Armenia. They were hurt coming into this match from losing 5-0 to Portugal on Saturday but they deservedly won the game. We were absolutely second best.\u201d Richard Dunne\u2019s assessment was deeper. This was the ninth time in the manager\u2019s competitive match record that Ireland fell behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a recurring theme with this team – they don’t have the passion or the mettle within them to go and stand up for themselves,\u201d the ex-Ireland defender told Virgin Media. \u201cThey can’t react to any adversity, it’s always the same thing.\u201d And to think it had started so promisingly.<\/p>\n
Just 25 seconds were clocked when a move from kick-off led to Finn Azaz drilling a low shot from the edge of the box.<\/p>\n
That was saved by Ognjen \u010can\u010darevi\u0107, a goalkeeper who turns 36 and stood in for Henri Avagyan following his injury in Saturday\u2019s pasting.<\/p>\n
His last appearance in Georgia saw him pick the ball out of the net six times but after a shaky start here he held firm.<\/p>\n
He was all at sea when scampering from his goal on three minutes to challenge Ferguson.<\/p>\n
Once the striker won the foot race, he pirouetted and lobbed the stranded keeper who was relieved to see Eric Piloyan nod the ball off the goal-line.<\/p>\n
Other chances fell to Jack Taylor and Nathan Collins later in the half, the first on the half hour when the Ipswich Town midfielder raided into the box and was denied by the Noah custodian at the near post. Collins couldn\u2019t angle his header from Jake O\u2019Brien\u2019s cross inside the post.<\/p>\n
Still, Armenia gradually grew into the game to take a foothold. The initial warning was fired on 18 minutes by Lucas Zelaray\u00e1n swerving a 20-yard thunderbolt that Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher parried before gathering.<\/p>\n
Their purple patch arrived inside the final 10 minutes of the half.<\/p>\n
Dara O\u2019Shea\u2019s slip at his endline allowed Tigran Barseghyan to square for Grant-Leon Ranos.<\/p>\n
Although the first shot was blocked by O\u2019Brien, his rising effort from rebound clattered off the crossbar.<\/p>\n
With Ireland reeling and the decibel levels rising within the crowd, the hosts snatched the lead right on half-time through a penalty.<\/p>\n
Zelaray\u00e1n was cute enough to nip ahead of Collins from a cross to tumble to the turf, convincing Goga Kikacheishvili to award a spot-kick.<\/p>\n
His decision was endorsed by a VAR check, enabling Eduard Spertsyan to beat Kelleher despite the Corkman eventually diving the right way to the left. It was the third game in a row that the captain had rattled the Irish net.<\/p>\n
Adam Idah and Kasey McAteer were unleashed for the second half but it didn\u2019t have the desired effect as Ireland were soon dissected to concede a second.<\/p>\n
Spertsyan was left alone in a central area to roll the ball behind O\u2019Brien on the left.<\/p>\n
Nayair Tiknizyan was the beneficiary, ghosting in behind to square for Ranos to beat Collins and smash the ball high into the net.<\/p>\n
Two goals behind, a rescue remedy was imperative and it came through Ferguson\u2019s seventh international goal six minutes later.<\/p>\n
His second-half strike partner Idah made the running, threading a pass through to centre that the AS Roma forward executed with a sweet right-footed curler into the far corner.<\/p>\n
There was no late siege by Ireland, with Ryan Manning the sole Irish who came near to equalising. His 75th minute shot on the turn from a botched Armenia clearance tested \u010can\u010darevi\u0107 but the Serbian-born stopper recovered after initially parrying the strike.<\/p>\n
Substitute Vahan Bichakhchyan stung the gloves of Kelleher before Tiknizyan was foiled only by Kelleher when sent clear on his own.<\/p>\n
Another sub, Artur Serobyan, though he\u2019d snaffled a third with two minutes left but despite bending his shot beyond Kelleher, another VAR checked confirmed offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n
\n ARMENIA: O \u010can\u010darevi\u0107; K Hovhannisyan, E Piloyan, G Arutyunyan, S Muradyan, N Tiknizyan; U Iwu, L Zelaray\u00e1n, E Spertsyan, T Barseghyan, GL Ranos.<\/p>\n
\n IRELAND: C Kelleher; J O\u2019Brien, N Collins, D O\u2019Shea, R Manning (L Scales 82); J Knight, J Cullen (K Phillips 70); C Ogbene (K McAteer 46), J Taylor (A Idah 46), F Azaz (M Johnston 70); E Ferguson.<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Goga Kikacheishvili (Geo).<\/p>\n
\n Attendance: 13,144.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup qualifier: Armenia 2 (Eduard Spertsyan 45+2 pen Grant-Leon Ranos 51) Ireland (Evan Ferguson 57)\u00a0 Seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-10773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}