AFTER his side tasted victory for the first time in this group, the positive message from Republic of Ireland manager Heimar Hallgrimsson was that the “glass is half-full, not half-empty”.
Is it? That depends on your point of view of course.
Ireland can still force their way into a play-off for World Cup qualification if:
1. They take a point against Portugal at home next month
2. Armenia beat Hungary at home.
3. Ireland beat Hungary away.
4. Portugal beat Armenia at home.
None of those results are absolutely outlandish and they would leave Ireland second on eight points, two clear of Hungary and three ahead of Armenia.
But should one of the variables go the wrong way, should Portugal win in Dublin for instance, then Ireland will be over before the final round of games.
Even the win against Armenia on Tuesday night threw up half-full/half-empty scenarios. Ireland could have won the game 6-0 because they missed five clear-cut chances either side of Evan Ferguson’s goal.
But, at the same time, they were going nowhere in the first half when the set-pieces were disorganised, the build-up was laboured and Armenia had the best chance of the half. The game changed, like the Hungary game last month, when their opponents had a man sent off.
So things are very much up in air for Ireland and, going forward, it will be safety-first for Hallgrimsson.
“I think this team must win on keeping clean sheets or conceding as few goals as possible,” he said.
Playing for Ireland is pressure “but good pressure” said Seamus Coleman after he returned to action against Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images) (Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)
“When you have opponents like Hungary with all their individual quality, when you have opponents like Portugal with all their goals in their players, you need to be solid in defence. I think that’s our way to win games at this moment.”
Three players – Seamus Coleman, Jayson Molumby and Festy Ebosele – who were left out of the squad for the first two games made their mark against Portugal and Armenia. Coleman has been immense and adds so much energy and quality to Ireland and Molumby was a dynamo in midfield.
“Seamus had two right-backs (Jake O’Brien and Matt Doherty) playing in the Premier League ahead of him, one in his team,” Hallgrimsson explained as his reason for not calling him up earlier.
“So with him not playing in Everton, it was difficult to pick him but after we lost Doherty we picked him and he showed his worth, he absolutely showed his worth.
“I wanted to call him in (for the first squad) but I thought it was just difficult to justify it. This was a good opportunity to justify it and I think we should get praised for bringing him in and playing him and he does this well, rather than criticised for not picking him earlier.
“He’s been a leader and we talked after Yerevan that we need leadership.”
Keeping a clean sheet against Portugal will secure the point Ireland need but then they need to go out to Budapest and beat Hungary. With a return of four goals from four games (and three of them came after their opponents went down to 10 men) that is going to be very difficult.
Hungary hit their target over their two games by beating Armenia and then clinching a previous point against Portugal thanks to an injury-time equaliser from Dominik Szoboszlai.
Ireland came agonisingly close to claiming a point in Lisbon on Saturday night so perhaps this Portugal team is not as fearsome on the pitch as they look on paper?
“They have a squad of players playing in the Champions League day in, day out – I don’t think we have a single player playing in the Champions League,” said Hallgrimsson.
“So it’s obviously an abundance of individual quality in that team but the scary thing about them is that there’s goals in almost every player.
“You look at him, he can score. You look at this one, he can score… So there’s a lot of goals in this team.
“But they’re not flawless and no team is and they have shown now against Hungary, against us, we could have stolen it, that they are not unbeatable.”