Dec 14,2024
"I'm not going to tell you to book flights to the USA, but start looking," said Heimir Hallgrimsson following the World Cup qualifying draw in Zurich on Friday.
The Ireland manager is taking a positive approach to the 2025 qualifiers, and while he was far from cocky about his side’s chances of reaching the World Cup, he knows that things could have been a lot worse.
Portugal or Denmark will complete Ireland’s group in March when they meet in the Nations League – the winner will join – while there was a certain element of relief that Ireland were not dealt one of the real big hitters from the top pot.
Germany and England were the two that Hallgrimsson was happy to avoid as he feels that they are the type of teams that make light work of qualifying campaigns, regularly going through unscathed.
Portugal, of course, are ranked sixth in the world and on paper possess one of the strongest squads in world football, yet the manager does not see much difference between the two, even though Denmark are currently outside the top 20.
The technical superiority of the Iberian side is countered by the cohesive nature of the Danes, who Hallgrimsson believes are a very strong collective.
Hungary are the second seed in the group and will provide tough opposition, yet equally, Hallgrimsson feels that they will take points from the top seed, which pushes the door open a bit wider for Ireland to attempt to get through.
Ireland also have a recent victory over Hungary to help take confidence into the campaign, and while it was a friendly affair, the opposition had a strong team as they were en route to Euro 2024.
Hallgrimsson is hoping for a fast start to the campaign, which he feels will go by in a flash, as the four-team nature will result in a three-month shoot-out next September to November.
Essentially, it is a Nations League format, and Hallgrimsson will now surely benefit from taking over the reins at the start of the 2024 campaign.
Ireland lost the first two games in September, and a repeat of that in the World Cup campaign would most likely rule out a first-place finish, however, there is the play-off guaranteed for finishing second.
A home clash against Hungary followed by an away game in Armenia will kick-start the 2026 campaign, which gives Ireland a chance to get off to a solid start before their first meeting against the top seeds in October.
"It’s always best to play the highest seeded team early," said Hallgrimsson, before the fixtures were announced on Friday night. "Whether it’s home or away, I think it’s good to play the best team early in the competition. Home and away, I don’t care.
"Start early and start well, and play the top teams early.
"I know some teams like England will go through qualification pretty smoothly with a 100% record. That’s teams like Germany and England. They may not be considered the best but always go through 100 percent.
"No, I don’t think so," he added, when asked whether Ireland would need to take six points from Hungary.
"It depends on if we get points from the top seeds and then it’s internal matches. I think there are going to be lost points in this group. That’s kind of my feeling, I have this gut feeling that Hungary and Portugal will take points from each other.
"So it gives more chances for teams in the third pot to go there. Whether it’s Denmark, Portugal or Hungary, we can get points from those games."
Hallgrimsson would be first to admit that his side’s showing from his six games in charge would not be good enough to qualify for a World Cup, with those aforementioned two early defeats reducing the campaign to a battle to avoid the drop.
But the manager believes that the improvement has been evident throughout his tenure, which, he expects will bode well for the upcoming campaign.
The team, of course, will begin 2025 with the lingering 5-0 Wembley humiliation hanging over them, which the manager is hoping is an "outlier" on the overall scheme of things.
Hallgrimsson did reiterate the trauma that the second-half showing caused him, however, he has tried to compartmentalise the experience
"Even though it was psychologically tough to lose that way, I think we can at least say we were missing a player playing away against a top four team in the world. That maybe it’s too much for us," he said.
"It was traumatising standing there, wanting to disappear into the grass in Wembley.
"It happened so quickly, both for us coaches and the players. Difficult to react. All of a sudden, you’re two-zero down, then three-zero down. You don’t know what’s happening.
"I hope it’s an outlier in our games. I would place it on that shelf, until I’m proven wrong, it’s a one-off thing.
"We've been working a lot especially on the defensive organisation. If not for the second half against England, I would have said statistically it was improving a lot," said Hallgrimsson, when asked where he wants to see his side improve throughout the 2025 campaign.
"The chances we conceded, the goals we avoided, the statistics were good until that second half. So I think we've taken good steps.
"But if we want to qualify, we need points against Denmark/Portugal, Hungary. It's always easier to win points without conceding goals ourselves, so we need to be spot on when it comes to those games in regards to the organisation; that is always the first priority.
"I think we have been taking these steps to be more organised, to be ready to play these games. If we want to qualify, we need points against these teams that are seeded above us."
Hallgrimsson will hope that the March double-header against Bulgaria will see his side start the year as they mean to go on and attempt to build some momentum to take into the summer and beyond to the qualifying campaign.
The manager said that there will definitely be a home friendly in June, but is also hoping to take the team away as well, which he feels is a vital team-building exercise, where they will attempt to concoct a plan to bring into the qualifiers.
Second place in the group would certainly spell progress in relation to where the national team have been over the course of the last five years, however, Hallgrimsson insists that top spot in the group is certainly there to play for.
"No one has that first spot reserved," he said. "Of course, the top seeded team is most likely to be there, but it's not always like that."
