Republic of Ireland take on the Netherlands in must-win Euro 2024 qualifier

European Championship qualifiers,

Group B: Republic of Ireland v the Netherlands,

Sunday, Aviva stadium, 7.45pm (Live on RTÉ Two)

Win or bust. The easiest compliment to pay Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland has been to praise their performances against the top-tier football nations they have encountered.

But the results haven’t matched up. There was the heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Portugal on the Algarve in 2021 before a fortunate draw with Serbia in Dublin, a scoreless encounter with Portugal and the 1-0 loss to France in March.

Due to the full-time scorelines, none of those performances will be remembered. Neither are they any use to Ireland when Virgil van Dijk leads a revitalised Netherlands into the Aviva stadium on Sunday night.

The Dutch defeat of Greece on Thursday in Eindhoven served to streamline this European Championships qualification group. France are out of sight with five wins from five while Ronald Koeman’s men sit second on six points, the same as Greece but with a game in hand.

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Ireland have yet to secure a win of any relevance to qualification for Germany 2024.

Failure to beat Koeman’s side will leave them out of contention to reach the Euros, from Group B anyway. It would also create a painfully slow wait to see if Kenny’s squad can sneak into a play-off in March.

The best-case scenario is for this Irish team to start playing the way their manager intended them to. That means possession-based football where the wing backs create chances for the host of EFL Championship strikers at Kenny’s disposal in the absence of Evan Ferguson.

Last year the manager welcomed the media into his inner sanctum, an Abbotstown bunker with the walls adorned by formations of upcoming opponents Lithuania and footage from non-TV angles of what his fledgling team does well.

He spoke that day about England trapping Ireland in a low block back in November 2020.

“When we were in England last year at Wembley, we didn’t have our strongest team out but in the second half they had 3-4-2-1 against us and they had Reece James and Saka as the wing backs, with Sancho and Grealish both flying as their two tens.

“We were a bit unbalanced but they forced us into a low block in our 4-3-2-1. We couldn’t get out of it in the second half, and after that I said, ‘never ever again will that ever happen.’”

During the 2-0 loss in Paris on Thursday night Ireland were trapped in a low block from which they could not escape. Now, any manager brave or foolish enough to set up offensively against the French side’s power and pace would be susceptible to a rout.

Ireland kept it tight at Parc des Princes and still France identified weakness. Ousmane Dembélé, the rangy PSG attacker, destroyed a 33-year-old Enda Stevens to remind Ireland’s other seven outfield defenders that Kylian Mbappè was not the only devastating attacker on show. Theo Hernandez also had a field day wide down the left.

The Irish shape held, their seven starting EFL Championship players working themselves to the bone against Champions League opponents, but the notion of beating the Netherlands and relaunching the Kenny era defies all logic.

The Dutch rediscovered their groove in Eindhoven. Now Kenny thinks Ireland can hold pace with them and fight to the last for a runners-up spot in Group B. It is possible, but evidence of a rising tide is nowhere to be found.

“They have a lot of good players, of course they have, but France are up a level on everyone. I think Holland, it’s a very resounding win for them [against Greece], so we will need a really resounding performance on Sunday. We’ll need to recover quick and dust ourselves down. We have Matt Doherty available for selection again and we’ll consider one or two others to bring in. Everyone else is okay, so that’s it.”

The Dutch clicked in the first half against Greece as Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo, Inter Milan’s Denzel Dumfries and RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons offered a creative X-factor that Kenny cannot call upon from a squad drawn from the lower Premier League and lesser English divisions.

“We need to pull out the performance of our lives,” said Kenny. “Holland beating Greece means if we beat Holland on Sunday the three of us are level in relation to second place with Greece to come at home in October and Gibraltar away.

“It is a big game, we need a victory. Holland have quality players, but we have won three of our last four competitive games at home, we have scored nine goals, we lost to France obviously, but we scored three each in three games.”

The opposition for those nine goals was Armenia, Scotland and — drum roll — Gibraltar.

Strikers Sinclair Armstrong (QPR) and Jonathan Afolabi (Bohemians) have been called up to the squad, with Preston North End striker Will Keane forced home by injury. Stevens has also been ruled out of the game.

Ireland (possible): Bazunu; Doherty, Collins, Duffy, Egan, McClean; Cullen, Molumby; Knight, Ogbene; Idah.

The Netherlands (possible): Flekken; Geertruida, Aké, van Dijk; de Roon, de Jong; Dumfries, Simons, Gakpo, Blind; Weghorst.