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Bazunu focused on future and the next 'Ronaldo moment'

The ability to save high-pressure penalties from Cristiano Ronaldo is what has made Gavin Bazunu Ireland's first-choice goalkeeper, however, the Dublin teenager acknowledges that it is his club form that keeps him in that position.

The Manchester City keeper, who is on loan at Portsmouth, was handed the number one jersey early in the World Cup campaign, and has held onto it for seven straight appearances, since the home game with Luxembourg.

Injury to regular keeper Darren Randolph put the position up for grab, with a trio of talented stoppers in line to take over, and while Mark Travers and Caoimhin Kelleher have made their case, it has been Bazunu who has cemented the spot.

Bazunu joined up with his Ireland team-mates in Dublin ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan with just two of the squad missing ahead of the flight to Baku.

Shane Duffy will join up with the squad later in the week as the defender was given compassionate leave due to the death of his grandmother, while Aaron Connolly was ill over the weekend but is expected to fly in ahead of trip.

New arrival Will Keane met up with the squad for the first time and took part in the training session at Abbotstown.

Bazunu, meanwhile, faced the media after training, and there was an obvious interest for the keeper to reflect on his heroics against the world class Ronaldo.

Ireland’s game in Portugal got off to the worst possible start as the team were caught in possession, which led to the awarding of a penalty after just ten minutes of the contest.

Bazunu went face-to-face with the footballing icon and came out on top, diving full length to his right to deny Ronaldo the opening goal and the international goal-scoring record.

"Before every game I look at penalty takers and I spoke to Dean Kiely before the game whether it was Ronaldo or Fernandes who was going to take it," explained Bazunu.

"The different run-ups that they might have and what side I was going to go to, depending on the run-up.

"I stuck to my gut and I was able to make the save, which was brilliant."

Ronaldo would, of course, go on to have the last laugh, break the goalscoring record and add another to help his side to all three points in injury time.

Bazunu could do little with either of the fine headed efforts, but bounced back with two fine performances in the home games that followed against Azerbaijan and most notably against Serbia where he made a string of world class saves to keep Ireland in the game and land the man of the match award.

And it is performances like these and his club form at Portsmouth that keeps Bazunu focused on the job in hand, knowing that these are the most important factors when it comes to staying ahead of the rest with the international team.

"Every time I come in, I just focus on trying to be the best in training, and improve myself in every way," said Bazunu.

"And whenever I get the chance on the pitch to prove that I’m the right decision to be playing. And that’s all I can do.

"The most important thing after that [Portugal] game was to back it up.

"Because at that moment, as much as it is special, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t go and put in some performance at your club.

"So that was what I was most focused on and I was happy that I’ve been able to perform quite well in my recent games."

Will Keane trained with the Ireland squad for the first time on Monday

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game in Baku, Bazunu believes that Ireland can expect a victory provided that they play to a similar level to what they showed against Portugal and Serbia.

And Bazunu feels that the squad are not affected by the winless run in the qualifying campaign as they can see the improvements that are occurring within each game as well as the new talent that is starting to emerge in the side.

"I see massive progress over the last few games and I see where we're going as a group and I feel that's what a lot of the other players think," said Bazunu.

"I think the most important thing is to look at us as a group, look at the game against Portugal, the game against Serbia, look at the amount of young players that have been integrated into the squad.

"This isn't going to be a short or quick fix, this is a long-term plan to get us into a position where we'll be able to challenge the best teams in the world.

"And it was brilliant to see players like Andrew [Omobamidele] coming through, making their debuts, and I think if we perform anywhere near the levels we played against Portugal and Serbia, the result should go our way."

Bazunu also admitted that speculation over the manager's future was not a concern, as the players were just focused on the next game.

"From the players' point of view we're not even thinking about that," said Bazunu.

"We're just thinking about the next game. We're taking all the information we're getting from the manager, Keith [Andrews] and Anthony [Barry] and it's really been brilliant.

"Like I said before, we've seen the progress we're making and we're just looking to build on that and take it game by game. The most important thing for us is the game on Saturday and we're not thinking ahead of that."

And as for that penalty save, Bazunu was, once again, brought back to that night on the Algarve coast, and asked how often he thinks about the memorable stop against one of the best players of all time.

"I don't think about it too much, but there are a lot of people who bring it up every now and again.

"It's a nice thing to be able to go back to, but I just want to kick on and have another moment like that."

Follow Azerbaijan v Republic of Ireland via our liveblog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ 2 and the RTÉ Player, or listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.

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