HEIMIR Hallgrimsson hopes to experience the joy of six in September — but he would settle for some four play.
The optimism surrounding Ireland’s chances of qualifying for a first World Cup in 24 years dropped on Tuesday night.
A favourable draw in December, the efficiency in which they beat Bulgaria home and away in the Nations League play-off and a fine show against Senegal allowed people to dream again.
But a dire display in the scoreless draw against Luxembourg has restored some perspective.
It served as a reminder that the chances of his side achieving anything easily are remote.
Their qualifying campaign begins in September with a home game against Hungary before a trip to Armenia 72 hours later.
In beating Azerbaijan in an away friendly on Tuesday, Hungary claimed only their second win in ten games since Euro 2024.
But that run of results is more to do with the calibre of the sides they were facing — playing Germany, Netherlands, Bosnia and Turkey twice each — rather than a loss of form.
In the same time frame, Armenia won just twice — both against Latvia. They have lost to the Faroe Islands and leaked 16 goals in their last four games.
Given the double-headers in October and November each feature a game against Nations League winners Portugal — who complete the four-team group — a strong start is essential.
And Hallgrimsson said: “Four points would be good, six would be better.
“If we get a draw against Hungary and win in Armenia. Probably it would be worse if it was the opposite. Four points would be OK, a good start. Six is what we aim for.”
It is not the first time Hallgrimsson has set such a target. He did the same for his first two games last September, against England and Greece. Ireland collected zero points.
But the opponents are not comparable and, while Hallgrimsson took a hands-off approach back then, his imprint is all over the side now.
Or at least it was until Tuesday when the players did little of what was expected from them.
Hallgrimsson said: “It would have been nice to have a performance.
“I don’t mind if we would not have won but I would have liked a better performance, more clear progress from what we did against Senegal.
“We wanted the same performance against Senegal. There was a lot of energy in that game. Forward-thinking. Counter-pressing. It was missing here. Whatever it is, we need to analyse.
“Did we prepare them correctly for this game? Do we need to change? It’s disappointing that we didn’t continue with the same momentum.
“We didn’t play well but we played away and didn’t concede a goal so even though we are not playing our best, if we can get points and maybe wins, that’s a good sign.”
HONOHAN DEBUT?
And grinding out a result explains why, when it came to making substitutions later in the game, he turned to seasoned pro Matt Doherty rather than the uncapped Josh Honohan.
Hallgrimsson said: “We didn’t want to lose this game. We wanted to keep a clean sheet. It’s important to take some steps and we looked at the bench more for experience than maybe giving some players a chance.
“In this game, it could have gone both ways. We looked more for experience in the subs.”
If players such as the Shamrock Rovers man were unhappy not to have been given an opportunity, others did not seize theirs in the manner in which they would have wished.
Bar his set-pieces — his corner ultimately led to Kasey McAteer’s goal against Senegal and Nathan Collins hit the post with a header from his free-kick on Tuesday — Will Smallbone was not as influential as he would have liked.
Killian Phillips — who impressed off the bench against Senegal — was unable to build on that when handed a starting role in Luxembourg.
And following that, St Mirren — who he just completed a permanent move to after a successful loan — might not provide him the best platform to nail down a regular place in the squad.
Similarly, McAteer was unable to reproduce the level of his performance in Dublin four days later.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Hallgrimsson said: “It’s important to be consistent, for everyone, just in life as well.
“You always want to grow, to use all your moments in life to grow, whether you’re a footballer or a person.
“You always like to learn from your mistakes and be a better person after you make mistakes.
“This was one and hopefully we will all grow from it.”
Jack Taylor arguably did better than most. He started on Friday and introduced some energy off the bench in the second game, striking the underside of the bar with a shot.
But he is among those who may drop back down the pecking order when Hallgrimsson is picking from a full deck.
Aside from those who are sidelined but expected to be back in September, he had, for the most part, decided against picking Championship players whose season had ended at the start of May.
And Hallgrimsson said: “He has been great at times he has come in but so have others that maybe were not here.”
FOOTBALL IS ONE-OF-A-KIND
The Icelander hopes that, on second viewing, the performance might not be as bad as it seemed at the time. But he admitted his view of where his team was at the final whistle stood in sharp contrast to how it was before kick-off.
He added: “I would have been 100 per cent confident two hours ago but this is football. You can be a much better team and still lose a match. That’s why everybody loves this game.
“It’s because sometimes even with a good performance you can lose a game. It’s the only sport in the world where a third division team can win against a first division team.
“You can look at all other sports, it doesn’t happen. We didn’t play well but we kept a clean sheet.
“If it had been a group stage, we would have had a point and, OK, let’s call that growth. I’m not going to take too much from this because we have had steady growth.
“There are so many factors that could have produced a little bit lower quality performance. When I look at it, I will probably be happier with many things.
“We should do better than we did. We all know that. We’re not shy to say it. We need to do better than we did if we are going to qualify.”
