'I wouldn't mind losing both friendlies if we won both qualifiers' - Hallgrímsson sets out his stall

The Ireland boss is preparing his side to face Senegal on Friday night.

TALL ORDER: Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson enjoys a coffee during squad training on Thursday. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Performance indicators for the World Cup campaign rather than results are what Heimir Hallgrímsson is aiming for from the two upcoming friendlies.

The Icelander has won four and lost the other four of his eight games at the helm but his contract is wedded to the qualifiers kicking off with the visit of Hungary on September 6.

African aristocrats Senegal, ranked 19th in the world, present the next test for Ireland at Lansdowne Road on Friday, followed by a trip to Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Hallgrímsson has ordered his weary Championship players Josh Cullen, Finn Azaz and Mikey Johnston to skip this camp with the thinking of being conditioned for the competitive sprint later in the year.

Ireland’s group is completed by Portugal and Armenia, from which the winner will book a direct ticket to USA, Canada and Mexico next year. Second guarantees entry into the playoffs.

“It’s important to keep the momentum,” he said about the pair of 2-1 Nations League playoff victories over Bulgaria in March.

“I wouldn't mind losing both these games if we won both games in September.

“Obviously we want to win all of our matches and we go to every match to win it. We have a good squad now and we are going to go for it, for sure.

"This preparation is mixed with what is going to happen in September.

“We began the camp by talking about what is coming up, why it is important to play games like Senegal, taking what we can to transfer into the September games against Hungary and Armenia.

“It is important that we have more than 11 players ready to play, knowing everything about how we want to play.

“We wanted to have a training camp in May to add knowledge to more players, see new faces and rock the boat, but that didn’t happen.

“We've been more or less picking a similar squad so when we lost out on the May camp we still opened spots for new players to come in."

Troy Parrott was the only midweek concern due to a bug but trained with the rest of the squad in their final session before Friday night’s game at Lansdowne Road.

It would seem the second part of the double-header has been circled as the opportunity to blood newcomers.

Uncapped John Patrick Finn (Stade de Reims), Killian Phillips (Crystal Palace) and Josh Honohan (Shamrock Rovers) are potential debutants over the 180 minutes but more likely are the likes of Jack Taylor and Will Smallbone stepping up from fringe status.

“The purpose of having a look at them is to see if they are ready to play,” he said of the new wave.

“Whether it will be tomorrow or against Luxembourg or not at all, we will wait and see.

“We have been happy with the players coming in, how they have coped with the environment and getting on board the messages and wanting to learn. That is the most important thing.” 

They’ll certainly be exposed to a stellar international outfit in Senegal.

Captained by Idrissa Gueye, they have quality throughout, from Pape Gueye and Pape Matar Sarr in midfield to his namesake in attack, Crystal Palace’s FA Cup winner Ismaila Sarr along with Nicolas Jackson.

Hallgrímsson said: “Senegal not only have physique, speed and running power but they look for the space behind you.

“Looking at the African Cup of Nations, opponents of Senegal always need to play against a low block.

“So they are specialists in finding pockets to play into for the third man running in. Senegal are unbeaten in 22 games, which is amazing for a national team. Before that Algeria defeat in 2023, they hadn’t lost in nine.

“They are a massive team. The first goal is important. Similar to when we play Portugal, they have players who can hurt you. Everything happens a little bit quicker, so we’ll need to defend.”