UNDER-21 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP/Armenia 4 Republic of Ireland 1: THE REPUBLIC of Ireland Under-21 side slipped to the bottom of their Uefa Championships qualifying group after this heavy defeat in Yerevan yesterday. Don Givens' side have yet to win a game in this campaign after six attempts.
Armenia were the basement side in the group, but a hat-trick by Henrikh Mkhitaryan helped them leap-frog an Ireland side missing key players Owen Garvan, Seán Scannell and James McCarthy.
"It was by far the worst performance I can remember given the ranking of the opposition. It's as poor as I've been involved with," said Givens.
Mkhitaryan first found the net on the half-hour after collecting a pass from Hovhannes Goharyan before slotting home past goalkeeper Shane Redmond.
The Metalurg Donetsk striker made it 2-0 in the 61st minute after a one-two with Edgar Malakyan carved open the defence.
Cillian Sheridan gave Ireland hope four minutes later when he jumped above goalkeeper Edvard Hovhannisyan and headed home Séamus Conneely's cross.
Bate Borisov striker Goharyan finished the game off 10 minutes later after he fired into the top corner following a swift counterattack. Mkhitaryan made it 4-1 from the penalty spot after Malakyan was taken down by Oyebanjo in the 81st minute.
ARMENIA: Hovhannisyan; Yedigaryan (Khachatryan, 73 mins), Arakelyan, Yuspashyan, Hayrapetyan, Manoyan, Voskanyan (Ghazaryan, 76 mins) Mkrtchyan, Malakyan, Goharyan (Badalyan, 90 mins), Mkhitaryan.
IRELAND: Redmond; Oyebanjo, Morris, Dennehy, Hughton, Gleeson, Conneely, Carey (Clifford, 46 mins), O'Shea, Collins (Madden, 66 mins), Sheridan.
Referee: R Prihoda (Czech).
