Ireland seek Austria win in bid for Nations League promotion

Résumé détaillé

Christoph Baumgartner’s return should improve Austria in transition while the 17-year-old Luca Weinhandl could make his debut. The Sturm Graz midfielder is already valued at €15…

Nations League B Group 3: Austria v Republic of Ireland, Raiffeisen Arena, Linz, 7.45pm – Live on RTÉ2

James McClean might seem like an odd starting point to preview the Republic of Ireland away to Austria in the penultimate fixture of a tumultuous Nations League campaign.

History might not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The last time a football international abutted an Ireland rugby match was November 12th, 2016, when RTÉ had to switch sports a few minutes after McClean’s winner in Vienna had put Martin O’Neill’s side top of their World Cup qualifying group.

The 5pm and 7.15pm kick-offs compelled the national broadcaster to redirect their post-match analysis from Damien Duff, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy to the RTÉ Player, so soccer fans could avoid having to watch the 52-12 drubbing of Canada at the Aviva Stadium.

The difference, 10 years later, is the test match against Fiji starts on Virgin Media 25 minutes after the football kicks off on RTÉ.

Not a single player remains from either game, rugby or football, although Séamus Coleman – the captain in 2016 – trained yesterday morning on the patchy Raiffeisen Arena surface.

“No, we didn’t expect to include Séamus,” said Hallgrímsson. “On Tuesday [against Kosovo at the Aviva] we don’t know the situation. We have five players on a yellow so we don’t know how many we will have in the squad.”

Jayson Molumby, Liam Scales, Ryan Manning, Adam Idah and Conor Coventry are all one booking away from missing Kosovo’s visit to Dublin. All five players should feature on Saturday night, even if Hallgrímsson sticks to the attack-minded front-three of Jack Moylan, Idah and Troy Parrott with Finn Azaz in a deeper midfield role.

Alternatively, Idah could make way for Chiedozie Ogbene in a more defensively-minded team, to avoid a repeat of the mini-collapse against Austria last month. The 2-2 draw on October 1st will be remembered for Parrott’s wonder goal, assisted by Idah, and Ireland’s leaky defence coughing up a 2-0 lead.

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