Stephen Kenny has named his Republic of Ireland team to take on Serbia at the Aviva Stadium this evening, still in search of his first competitive win in charge of the side.
Saturday's draw with Azerbaijan seemingly sapped away much of the optimism that surrounded the team after the performance in Portugal, with the Serbs sure to provide some tough opposition tonight.
Kenny will have to get through this game without Aaron Connolly and Seamus Coleman, both of whom have been ruled out due to injury.
Gavin Bazunu starts in goal once again, with a three-man defence of John Egan, Shane Duffy, and Andrew Omobamidele in front of him. It will be the Norwich man's first start for his country.
The wingbacks will be Matt Doherty and James McClean, while Josh Cullen, Jeff Hendrick, and Alan Browne make up the midfield.
Up front we have Adam Idah, with Jamie McGrath returning to the side in what is likely to be a number ten role.
Cyrus Christie and Liam Scales both come into the matchday 23 having recently been called up to the squad. In all, there are four changes to the team from the Azerbaijan game.
Here is the team in full.
STARTING XI | Ireland v Serbia
Jamie McGrath, Alan Browne, Jeff Hendrick & Andrew Omobamidele all start 👏
Callum Robinson named on the bench as he continues to return to full match fitness
Huge game tonight, get behind the team once again 🙌#COYBIG | #WeAreOne | #IRLSRB pic.twitter.com/Ed7ZIDmxwC— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) September 7, 2021
Serbia are a strong outfit, boasting some of the most highly sought after young talents in Europe. In Aleksander Mitrovic, they also have one of the most in-form international goalscorers around at the minute. He has already found the back of the net seven times in this campaign, including twice when these sides met in Belgrade back in March.
A failure to pick up three points in this fixture would officially end Ireland's hopes of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, although in truth such a prize already looks well beyond their reach.
The remainder of the campaign will be spent getting some of the young emerging players in the squad accustomed to international football, although fans will also want to see an uptick in results having failed to win any of our four games in the campaign to date.
There would be no better to start than tonight.
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