Determined Doherty aiming to avenge Athens debacle

There may be little at stake when Ireland entertain Greece in Friday night's Euro 2024 qualifying clash at the Aviva Stadium, however, Matt Doherty has plenty of incentive to secure a morale-boosting win for Stephen Kenny’s side.

The likelihood within Group B is that neither Ireland nor Greece will secure one of the two qualifying places for next summer’s tournament in Germany, however, Gus Poyet’s visiting unit have the safety blanket of a play-off place courtesy of their most recent Nations League campaign.

No such luxury for the Irish, however, as Kenny’s side are currently outside the play-off places and would need several results around Europe to go their way over the next couple of months.

Which all leaves little to play for as the two teams meet at Lansdowne Road on Friday in the first of this week’s double header, with Ireland travelling to the Algarve to take on Gibraltar on Monday.

Doherty, however, has a score to settle following the firey 2-1 defeat to Gus Poyet’s side in June, where the Wolves defender received his marching orders in the final moments.

"Obviously the red card was soft," said Doherty, speaking at Tuesday’s press conference in Dublin. "I took the punishment on the chin.

"It cost me Gibraltar. It cost me France away, games I needed. There’s no hiding. I’m going into the game, motivated as always, but in the back of my head the thoughts of what happened over there and the thoughts of the behaviour that we felt towards us from some of them, yeah there’s definitely a bit of added motivation there.

Asked to elaborate regarding the Greek "behaviour", Doherty added: "Just like the way we felt they were acting during the game. Look, we’ll be ready. We’ll be good to go on Friday night."

James McClean’s