Republic of Ireland: Nathan Collins still at a loss to explain defeat by Armenia

Republic of Ireland captain Nathan Collins is still unable to provide an explanation for his side’s 2-1 loss to Armenia last month before they welcome the same opposition to Dublin.

Irish World Cup qualifying hopes were dealt a seismic blow with the defeat in Yerevan last month against the group’s lowest-ranked side.

The performance grew even more perplexing considering their brave showing at top seeds Portugal on Saturday night, albeit losing 1-0 to a 91st-minute Ruben Neves header.

The Brentford captain struggled to put his finger on what exactly went wrong in the embarrassing reverse against the Armenians when asked before Tuesday night’s game.

“It’s such an awkward one, football is such a mad sport, anything can happen, things change and it happens so quickly, momentum and how players feel,” Collins said.

“We just never got going, I think [Armenia] grew in confidence from us struggling to get going, to create stuff. The togetherness we’ve seen in Portugal and the way we connected as an 11, was completely different to how we connected together in Armenia.

“I think Armenia took confidence from that, they took that confidence away from us. They probably had better chances, better spells, and they looked a better team.

“We have belief that we are a better team than that. We have belief that we can go and beat big teams and go against these teams and we can get results and put in good performances like Portugal. Sometimes there’s no clear explanation why, but it’s tough to take.”