Kenny calls for 'historic' victory in Greece to boost quest to qualify for Euro 2024

Stephen Kenny believes that an away win in Athens can kick-start Ireland's quest to qualify for next year’s European championships in Germany.

Ireland are currently in Turkey completing a warm-weather training camp ahead of next Friday’s away game against Greece, where they are hoping to secure their first points of the qualifying campaign.

Kenny’s side narrowly lost their group opener against France at the Aviva Stadium in March, and have seven more games to complete before the end of the year, in an attempt to finish in the top two, which would earn automatic qualification for Euro 2024.

But while Greece is the current focus, Ireland’s main threat for that second spot looks set to come from the much-fancied Netherlands, who despite an early loss to France, began the campaign as the group’s top seed.

A double-header against the Dutch later this year should determine their destiny, however, Kenny’s charges need to win in Greece to offer themselves an opportunity to challenge.

And the manager believes that his team can record a vital win in Athens next week, before coming back to Dublin to play Gibraltar three days later.

"What we have asked the players for is a historic away victory," said Kenny, speaking to RTE football correspondent Tony O'Donoghue in Turkey.

"When you look at the history of the Irish teams in the years that they qualified and the away wins they had, they haven’t been against the major nations.

"There was important wins in Malta, Albania, Cyprus, Georgia and Armenia; they were the big away wins when teams have qualified, and Greece would be right up there."

The manager urged caution, however, and expects a very tough test against a Greece side who are on the up and impressed in the latest edition of the Nations