6 days Ago
Heimir Hallgrimsson is certain that his Irish players will approach a daunting Wembley date against England today with a greater level of maturity than was evident in Thursday’s fortunate win over Finland. The Icelander accepts that a repeat performance would likely be punished ruthlessly by Lee Carsley’s side, thus ensuring that Ireland’s Nations League campaign would end on a low note. Whatever happens at Wembley this evening, Ireland will finish their group in third position and face a two-legged March play-off to stay in League B.
But Hallgrimsson is keen for his players to draw some meaning from the game with a view to next year’s World Cup qualifiers, believing they must become more comfortable in matches where they will have to “suffer”’ without the ball. “I am pretty sure we will be more mature in the way we do things against England than we did against Finland,” said the manager. Hallgrimsson was unhappy with how his players lacked composure off the ball at the Aviva, exerting energy when it wasn’t necessary and leaving gaps behind them.
“Thursday was not a good enough performance to get something away from Wembley. We cannot be as open as we were against England. They have players of quality that will punish us in that situation.
It is about the psychology of not having the ball and having the patience to defend for a long time. “Let’s be honest, there will be two teams higher ranked than us in the World Cup preliminaries and we will need to get points from these teams to qualify. That’s a fact.
We need to learn how to play against these teams.” Lee Carsley has confirmed that Harry Kane will be restored to his starting side for the final game of his caretaker stint. England need three points to secure top spot in the group.
And the former Irish international admitted yesterday that there will be another tug at the emotions today. “It’s very difficult to detach yourself from it,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday when asked if he was still conscious of that international tug-of-war in his emotions. “When I spoke to John McDermott [of the English FA] a couple of days after Gareth [Southgate] had gone, about the potential of taking the squad for the Nations League, the first thing I did was look at the fixtures and you realise it’s the Republic of Ireland, which is a big thing, the amount of caps that I got or the amount of time I spent during that time as well, in terms of making my debut at 24 up until 30-odd, and what goes with that.
” See pages 2-5.
