Cristiano Ronaldo: Penalty save against Manchester United star won't define career - Republic keeper Gavin Bazunu

Bazunu saves Ronaldo's penalty in Portugal last month

Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu is determined his penalty save from Cristiano Ronaldo will not be the defining moment of his career.

The 19-year-old made his name on the international stage last month by saving from the Manchester United star in a World Cup qualifier in Portugal.

Ronaldo scored two late headers to condemn the Republic to a 2-1 defeat after they had led 1-0.

"I don't think about it too much," he said when asked about the save.

"But there are a lot of people who bring it up every now and again and it's a nice thing to be able to go back to. But I just want to kick on and I want to have another moment like that."

Manchester City's Bazunu is currently on loan at League One Portsmouth, but appears to have established himself as Ireland's number one under Stephen Kenny, with his exploits in Faro doing his cause little harm.

"Before every game I look at penalty takers and I spoke to (goalkeeping coach) Dean Kiely before the game whether it was Ronaldo or (Bruno) Fernandes who was going to take it, the different run-ups that they might have and what side I was going to go to depending on his run-up," he continued.

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

The Republic's hopes of making it to Qatar next year were severely diminished since that near miss by home draws with Azerbaijan and Serbia.

Stephen Kenny's men go into the reverse fixture with the Azeris in Baku on Saturday evening looking for positives, with one eye already on the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.

They are yet to win a competitive game under Kenny in 12 attempts and have only won once - a friendly in Andorra - in the former Dundalk manager's 16-match reign. .

However, Bazunu insisted that the new-look squad the manager has assembled has already shown promise and is confident there is much more to come.

"Not at all," he said when asked if the winless run was a concern.

"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.

"They can see the progress we're making with a lot of the young lads that are coming through and how brave we are in terms of playing and we've just not got rewarded for that.

"But I'm sure if we continue to play how we have played and if we continue to build on what we've done, the results will come."