Stephen Kenny had the look of a student who had put in the requisite hours preparing for final examinations as he faced the press ahead of Wednesday night's game against Portugal.
An air of quiet confidence emanated from the top table as the Ireland manager sat side-by-side with captain Seamus Coleman ahead of what is surely his greatest test since taking charge of the national team.
Working in his specialist subject, the source material has been plentiful as Kenny has, no doubt, spent the summer months scrutinising every ounce of information on this star-studded Portugal side from their three World Cup qualifiers in March on to their four fixtures at Euro 2020.
The theory section complete, Kenny moves into practical mode at the Estádio Algarve as he puts out a team to compete with the host nation, while also aiming to take something away from the trip to the Iberian peninsula. Yet as with all exams, the avid soccer scholar will be hoping the right questions present themselves.
Considering the pointless start to the campaign and with three vital games to play in a week, which will go a long way to determining if Ireland have anything to play for in the remaining Group A games, Kenny was given an easy ride from the assembled press.
Manager Stephen Kenny says the Republic Ireland are looking forward to facing Portugal and potential world-record breaker Cristiano Ronaldo in their #WorldCup2022 qualifier on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/XoeHMwoUg3
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) August 31, 2021
A lot of the focus of the obligatory, yet tightly managed, pre-match press conference was understandably centred around Portugal superstar and goalscoring world record holder in waiting Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kenny appeared happy to fly under the radar ahead of a game that many would consider a foregone conclusion.
Ireland’s best performances under Kenny’s watch, however, have come in their most difficult competitive games, in the Euro 2020 play-off in Slovakia and the opening qualifier in Belgrade.
And the manager tends to save his best work for such scenarios, as was the case at club level where Dundalk had a habit of rising to the occasion against esteemed opposition on memorable European nights for his former club.
The in-depth knowledge of the Group A opponents is crucial to how Kenny sets up his Ireland side, however, the manager tried to keep the focus on his own team who will have to follow the game plan and perform strongly as a unit to get anything out of the qualifier.
"They’re a very strong team, but we are really focusing on ourselves," said Kenny.
"We’ve done our homework on Portugal, we know their strengths, but we want to focus on ourselves and putting in a really strong performance.
"I saw them [Portugal] in Munich in the game against Germany, the 4-2 and in the Budapest draw with France, which was an excellent game. And I felt they were unfortunate to lose to Belgium in the quarter final," he added.
There is, no doubt, a plan will be in place for dealing with such a hot commodity as Ronaldo, yet Kenny knows that the quality that will be on show alongside the returning Manchester United man would render it useless to place all the focus on the star man.
Ronaldo has been leading the line for Portugal, yet there is an argument to suggest that the team is more effective when he plays to the left of a more natural attacker, such as Andre Silva.
But it remains to be seen as to how the home side will put out their front unit, as they will surely ponder that Ireland would be more comfortable setting up against a more natural centre-forward rather than playing a front four with an unorthodox striker making room for an extra playmaker such as the ever-busy Bernardo Silva.
Either way, Kenny is planning to deal with an attacking threat as good as any in Europe, and will be confident that his side will adjust accordingly to the formation faced, while also ruling out doing a man-marking number on Ronaldo.
"No," said Kenny, when asked would the talisman be a marked man.
"I think Portugal’s front four, and overlapping full backs, are a real threat.
"The front four are equally dangerous, so we’ll have to defend as a unit against a potent attack and show our quality as a defence.
"We can’t just go to defend, we have to show our quality in possession and carry an attacking threat. That has to be the way we approach the game."
Just how that attacking threat can manifest itself within this Ireland performance remains to be seen, however, there have been moments during the one-year tenure that Kenny’s side have played with real fluency, working the ball out from the back, switching the play, while also happy to attack the flanks.
The early stages of the England encounter saw Ireland command a threat down the right flank, while the first half in Serbia and the latter stages of the Slovakia game showed the team performing at a level that the manager is aspiring towards on a consistent basis.
"It's certainly not our intention to be defensive," said Kenny. "I’m sure with the Portuguese quality they’ll force us to defend at times, and we acknowledge that.
"We know Portugal are a terrific team and we have to show our quality, which is the big challenge for us."
Looking beyond Portugal to the week ahead, with fixtures against Azerbaijan and Serbia to come, the manager stressed that he had not targeted a tally from the three games, but is rather focused on the performances.
Kenny admitted that it was a tough week ahead but appeared buoyed by the spirit that he has encountered within the squad, while also challenging his side to make their own history on a night where Ronaldo is expected to grab the spotlight.
"I think nine [points] would be a brilliant return, there is no doubt about that," pondered the manager.
"We would like to have the maximum amount of points that we can, but we haven't set ourselves a points target this week.
"We are focused on the performance tomorrow and then we can look at Azerbaijan and Serbia. We have three tough games this week, we're aware of that but the atmosphere in the squad is excellent.
"We want to put in a really strong performance tomorrow and we're excited about the game.
"We have to bounce back from that [March setback], starting with Portugal, which is a big challenge for us.
"We know they are a phenomenal football nation who have a phenomenal history in recent times, so we've got to create our own history over the next while and it is our intention to try and do that."
Follow Portugal v Ireland with our live blog on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7pm and listen to live commentary on 2fm's Game On.
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