Stephen Kenny urges Republic of Ireland to carry momentum into Nations League

Stephen Kenny has urged the Republic of Ireland to carry their building momentum into this summer’s Nations League campaign.

Ireland extended their unbeaten run to seven games with an impressive display in a 2-2 friendly draw with world number one side Belgium in the FAI’s centenary match on Saturday, and have now lost only once – and that in Portugal – in the 11 fixtures they have played since a humiliating 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat by Luxembourg in March last year.

For Kenny, who won none of his first 10 outings as manager as Covid-19 and injuries hampered his efforts to build a new-look team, that is a sign of genuine progress which he hopes his players will take into Tuesday night’s friendly against Lithuania and beyond, after producing an encouraging performance on a big day for Irish football.

He said: “We wanted the players to do that justice, particularly against the world number one, it was important.

“To have a near-capacity crowd was amazing and the passion in the crowd, the players fed off that.

“We wanted to keep our unbeaten run going and the good run we’ve had over the last 10, 11 games now, we wanted to keep that going.

“We’ve played some good teams – Serbia, Portugal twice and Belgium – so it was important to keep that going and try to get a momentum because the Nations League games in June and September are important and we want to build momentum for that.”

Kenny faced concerted criticism during the early months of his reign as he attempted to take a different approach at the same time as introducing a new generation of players.

Tired of suggestions that the nation did not have the personnel to play progressive football, he has overhauled the squad and introduced younger players who prospered