Kenny: Ireland are improving all the time

Stephen Kenny is adamant the future is bright despite the Republic of Ireland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar next year.

Ireland will end their qualification campaign in Luxembourg on Sunday, having left themselves with too much to do by losing their first three games, the last of them a shock 1-0 loss to Luc Holtz’s men in Dublin in March.

However, Thursday night’s 0-0 draw against Portugal made it just one defeat in nine matches – a loss in the reverse fixture in Portugal – backing up Kenny’s claim the team are making progress.

“Obviously, we lost to Luxembourg in March,” said Kenny.

“That last-gasp defeat in Portugal is the only match [lost] in nine since then, so we have learned a lot.

“We have a stronger squad overall with the influx of a lot of players we have brought through the system. That gives us greater competition for places, which you need.

“We are an improving team, we are improving all the time.

“We are not perfect, we still have some work to do to get better.

“We are hungry to get better, there’s a great spirit in the squad.

“You have seen that recently in the last few windows. There’s tremendous togetherness in the squad and we’ve seen a very high technical standard in recent games, against Portugal, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Serbia.

“There has been a very high technical standard overall from the players and they have shown their quality.”

Kenny is hopeful Andrew Omobamidele will be fit for Sunday night’s match.

The 19-year-old Norwich defender missed the draw with Portugal in Dublin, as he nursed an Achilles problem.

However, he was due to train at the Stade de Luxembourg on Saturday evening.

Kenny said: “Andrew Omobamidele, we’ll assess him in training this evening.

“Obviously he’s not trained yet, but we’re confident that he’ll be fit, I think.

“We’ll see how he goes.”