Oct 11,2024
It was a case of third time lucky as Ireland's Nations League campaign finally got going following a hard-fought, come-from-behind 2-1 victory against Finland in Helsinki.
Following a double defeat to mark the start of the Heimir Hallgrimsson era, the new head coach got it right on the road, as his side had to do things the hard way after gifting Finland a soft first-half goal, which saw Ireland trailing at the break.
The side that emerged for the second half began with real intent and were rewarded in the 57th minute as Liam Scales guided a perfect header into the back of the net to level matters at the Olympic Stadium.
With a point looking the likely outcome, albeit with both sides pushing for a late winner, it was the travelling Irish who would end up celebrating thanks to Robbie Brady’s finish, which sees Ireland travel to group leaders Greece full of confidence following the victory.
Hallgrimsson was obviously delighted after the game as he arrived into the post-match press conference, however, he was not completely happy with his side’s performance as he felt his team started slowly and offered up too many chances to the home side throughout the game.
But overall, he was pleased with how his team reacted after going a goal behind and felt that the performance started to improve before the break and then pick up further at the start of the second half when his side started to move the ball quicker in possession, which ultimately led to the equalising goal.
"I think we showed a little bit a Jekyll and Hyde performance," said Hallgrimsson. "We had good spells and then kind of moments where we were not doing things as well.
"It's also related to the confidence. I think we didn't start the game well, I don't know why, but then again as the game developed, we were more on the front foot, better pressing, more collective and better decisions.
"Winning gives players confidence in what we are doing and hopefully we can improve what we are doing and that would give us more wins. I think it's a chain reaction.
"I think I would like to keep on winning, at least. It's always more enjoyable," he added, when reminded that he said last month that he hates losing.
The most obvious issue that needed to be addressed at the break was the concession of such a simple goal following Nathan Collins’ mistake, however, the manager said that it was dealt with in one sentence, which allowed his side to focus on the second 45.
"It was a mistake, we finished that in the first sentence, they happen," said Hallgrimsson.
"We cannot be angry. It was not a tactical mistake, just a bad pass. S**t happens. Let's continue.
"I think given everything that's happened in the past, it shows really a good character to come back from a mistake. It was a silly mistake, but that happens in football and you cannot be angry if players make mistakes.
"We felt we were doing pretty good at the end of the first half, getting into good positions and playing forward. It was just the final ball, and that's confidence to get in the box and win the first and second ball.
"We had a perfect free kick that we scored from in the second half, we'd been working on that and we executed perfectly. That gives the players confidence.
"But the character is spot on. We kept on going, and four attacking substitutions, and everybody was fighting to get these three pints, so we had great character."
And that second-half performance also handed the coach the confidence to maintain the attacking intent by making changes and injecting impetus into the final 20 minutes as Troy Parrott, Adam Idah, Jamie McGrath and Festy Ebosele were all sent on to replace the tiring forward unit.
Hallgrimsson gave credit to his Finland counterpart, Markku Kanerva, who was also trying to take all three points, and had chances to win the game before Brady popped up to steal the show.
"I think you probably saw that in the substitutions. We wanted to go for the win. There were moments in the game where Finland had the upper hand," said Hallgrimsson.
"In the second half, it was kind of swinging a little bit, especially when they made their substitutions. They kind of had a five to seven-minute spell where they looked really fresh and then it equalled out.
"But I think both coaches wanted to win and took chances, and this time it fell for us.
"I think it was an overall good performance and tactically it was successful," he added. "You always can say that when you win a game, but it's a game of margins, they got two chances second half, pretty good chances in the second half, I think they had three in the game, good goalscoring chances, so we must lower that number."
If Brady played the lead role, he was backed up by a strong supporting cast, most notably by Ebosele, who dazzled out wide on the right, before delivering the perfect cross to set up the winning goal.
And the manager was full of praise and enjoyed Ebosele’s nonchalance after coming into the international arena with only a handful of caps ahead of tonight’s encounter.
"This is what you want from your substitutes," said the manager.
"Festy was strangely confident, arrogantly confident in front of one or two players and just took them on, and a brilliant run on the far post and a good cross, and then we had a lot of bodies in the box. I think that shows the will to go for the win.
"In all three matches Robbie has been consistent, with good performances," added Hallgrimsson, paying tribute to the goalscorer.
"He is a match winner today. He needed to step into the vacancy of leaders, he did that, especially on the pitch. He had a really good game, same as Scales, winning duels, scoring a goal."
After the game, the players enjoyed the prolonged celebrations with the 1300-strong travelling Ireland contingent, who had a bird’s eye view of the winning goal as it was scored at the end they were located.
And Hallgrimsson took a moment at the end to blow kisses to the crowd in appreciation of the support that he believed helped his side to get over the line in the final minutes of the contest.
"I’ve not experienced a thousand travelling supporters before, and vocal as this one and just celebrating as much as they did," said Hallgrimsson.
"I love it, I absolutely love it, and give big respects to those people, to those supporters and they deserve at least a big applause from me and thanks for their support, because we felt even before we scored the goal when we were on our front foot playing forward we felt the energy coming from the stands.
"We felt that they were happy with what we were doing even before we scored the goal, and even happier when we did."
