Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson says the prime objective of Tuesday night was to emerge from the Aviva still with a live chance of qualifying for the World Cup.
Ireland’s 1-0 win over 10-man Armenia is unlikely to feature in any glorious montage of famous victories but it was enough to take this qualification campaign down to the last window – at home to Portugal and away to Hungary.
But Hungary’s 2-2 draw with Portugal has made Ireland’s task that bit harder. If Ireland lose to Portugal next month and Hungary beat Armenia, then our World Cup aspirations would be over before the trip to Budapest.
“We knew we’d need to go to Hungary and win. Now we might need a point against Portugal or need a favour from Armenia in Yerevan. There is a spirit in Armenia that is noticeable. They matched Hungary in Budapest,” said Hallgrímsson on Tuesday night.
“You Irish always like to go down to the wire. Okay, let’s do that. The next window is a new dawn. We just needed three points [tonight] to be alive, to have a chance. It was always going to be a tough match. Players will play at a higher quality next time.
“We can match Hungary. We’ve shown that. Portugal away, tough game, incredible Portuguese crowd, and we played well against them. With the Irish crowd we can get something from that game. The power of the media means it is your decision to see it half-full or half-empty.”
Hallgrímsson feels anxiousness was a significant contributing factor in Tuesday night’s display against Armenia.
“Nerves, because it was a must-win game. You sometimes become passive when you have nerves,” he added.
“The red card released those nerves. We won ball higher up the pitch and put pressure on them. We showed bravery in the second half.”
“We said before this camp that we would take a scrappy 1-0 win. So, we cannot be unhappy. We won now, we didn’t concede early, we kept a clean sheet so we’ll take the positives and move on.
“We got the win. It was not beautiful and we should have got more goals but I’ll take it all day.”