Hopeful Hallgrimsson trusts Wembley 'trauma' a one-off
Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson during a FIFA World Cup Draw media briefing at FAI Headquarters in Abbotstown, Dublin. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
It wasn’t the Friday the 13th factor or World Cup draw pitting Ireland against Dominik Szoboszlai and potentially Cristiano Ronaldo that had the manager feeling ‘traumatised.’ Rather Heimir Hallgrimsson was spooked by the mere mention of England.
Four weeks on from the second half collapse at Wembley which saw Ireland concede five unanswered goals, the Icelander shivered at the memory.
“It all happened so quickly that it was traumatising standing there, wanting to disappear into the grass in Wembley,” he recalled about this year’s final engagement of a six-match blitz.
“All of a sudden, you’re two-zero down, then three-zero down. You don’t know what’s happening and it’s difficult to react – as players and staff.
“Let’s just try to work on the trauma and go from there.
“I hope it’s an outlier in our games. I would place it on that shelf until I’m proven wrong that it wasn't a one-off.”
Hallgrimsson feels the five-month period between that humbling and their next assignment – the double-header Nations League relegation playoff against Bulgaria in March – can heal that pain. Only Ireland have history of being stifled by a bruising.
Arguably, they never recovered from the 5-1 pasting by Denmark in 2017, a game when the tantalising prospect of successive tournaments was destroyed by Christian Eriksen’s half hour masterclass.
An older version of Eriksen could be squaring up against Ireland again for a tilt at reaching the 2026 version of the global showpiece. His Danes must upset Portugal in the March Nations League playoff to land in the group alongside Ireland, Hungary and Armenia.
Most likely, however, is the Irish gaining a first-hand insight into Ronaldo’s final international campaign. He’ll be 40 by the time of the extravaganza jointly-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico but the tournament is being billed as the swansong for himself and fellow generational talent Lionel Messi.
Hallgrimsson was preparing Jamaica for the Copa América in June when his assistant John O’Shea took caretaker charge for the friendlies against the Portuguese and Hungary.
Ronaldo and Co might have sauntered through their Euro campaign with a maximum haul of 30 points but the Ireland boss isn’t restraining his ambitions in a campaign kicking off in September.
“Yes,” he said about targeting top spot, the only guarantee of a direct ticket to a first World Cup since 2002.
“No team has that first spot reserved. Of course, the top seeded team is most likely to be there but it’s not always like that.
“Having coached Iceland for so long, I know some teams like England and Germany will go through qualification pretty smoothly with a 100 percent record.
“France, Italy and Netherlands tend to lose points.
“We will be ready in September. I’m not going to tell people to book flights to the USA but maybe start looking.”
More likely, presuming the Iberians shake off Denmark by March 23, is Ireland jostling with the Hungarians for the playoff spot. There’s enough players in the Ireland squad from the 2022 drama against Armenia – the 1-0 defeat followed by scraping a late 3-2 win in Dublin – to avoid presumptions.
Hungary reached the last two European Championships and are seeking their first World Cup appearances since 1986.
“Against the trauma, we have the medicine from knowing we have beaten Hungary,” Hallgrimsson observed about the 2-1 win six months ago.
“Psychologically, it’s good to have played them and won. They are a good team, with strong players going forward, along with creative ones like Szoboszlai, but they’re not unbeatable.
“Maybe it is a positive for us that we played these teams and it is probably good to have lost against Armenia. They are seeded below us but I don’t think our players would underestimate them.
“To qualify we’ll need six points from the games against Armenia. As I have said since coming into this job, we will also require points off the seeds above us. That is certain.”
Defensive solidity is the trait Hallgrimsson had clung to in that mission and is sticking with it despite the recent turmoil of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham ripping his backline to shreds.
More that parking the bus will be essential to prosper, so his monitoring of John Patrick Finn in La Liga opens the possibility of fresh midfield vibrancy. Billed as a wonderkid, it’s taken a while for the playmaker to emerge at Getafe but has used his cameo against Real Madrid as a platform.
“I haven’t seen much, to be honest, but we have seen some highlights and talked about him,” explained the manager.
“John (O’Shea) knows him from the underage system so he gave me some points. We are watching, for sure.
“It’s great to have players playing other than only the UK - a good experience for them and good for us to have different kinds of players.”
This draw breeds more familiarity than variety but Hallgrimsson’s attitude ought to encourage players and the public about the land of opportunity being realistic.
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