Gavin Cooney reports from Yerevan, Armenia

HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON HAS warned his Irish players to be ready from kick-off against Armenia in their World Cup qualifier in Yerevan tomorrow night, following a damaging recent trend of slow starts. 

Ireland have conceded the first goal in eight of Hallgrimsson’s nine competitive matches in charge so far, handing Hungary a two-goal head start in the first 16 minutes of Saturday’s qualifier at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland conceded within the first 20 minutes in half of those matches. 

Though Armenia were hammered 5-0 at home by Portugal on Saturday, they have had the benefit of no travel for this game, whereas Ireland took a five-hour flight to Yerevan on Sunday afternoon. 

“Obviously, they will have more power in the beginning, I would guess, with an extra day to recover”, said Hallgrimsson at his pre-match press conference. “We just need to be ready for that. Now we’ve conceded early goals in three games of late, and they probably fancy their chances in the beginning, so we need to be ready from kick-off.” 

Sammie Szmodics withdrew from the squad through injury after the Hungary game, and he has been replaced by Shamrock Rovers’ Josh Honohan. Ireland otherwise have a fully-fit squad from which to choose, though Hallgrimsson said he would assess fatigue levels at training today before deciding on his selection. Matt Doherty trained today with a heavily-strapped wrist: he broke it recently playing for Wolves but continues to play for Ireland as it heals. 

Asked to reflect on Saturday’s 2-2 draw, Hallgrimsson said, “It’s kind of what you decide to take from it. Is the glass half-empty or is the glass half-full? We will obviously address some of the things that we didn’t do well, but from the 30th minute, I think we more or less controlled the game.

“We gained a good rhythm that increased towards the end. Obviously going one man up was helpful, but still, you’ve seen so many games where a team goes one man down and you don’t see it, but it really was there to be seen that we took control and put them under pressure.

“We created a lot of good opportunities that we should have done better with, but it’s a better problem to solve not scoring from many chances than not creating chances. So that’s a little bit easier.

“It was a  really good effort, really good character, that’s what we take from this game and bring it into this one. If we can keep on playing [against Armenia] like we did from minute 30, I would be happy.” 

Tomrrow’s game kicks off at 8pm local time but is set to start in close to 30-degree heat, and is a must-win game for Ireland if they are to contest a play-off position to the final matchday in Budapest. Ireland were shocked here in the Nations League in 2022, when Eduard Sperstyan curled home a long-range shot to smithereen Ireand’s campaign in its very first game. A repeat result does not bear thinking about. 

“I haven’t really thought about it too much”, said Josh Cullen, who played in that game just over three years ago. 

“It hurt at the time and of course it hurts losing any game for your country, but we’re in a new era now, we have a new mindset as a team, and we’re just looking forward to getting back out there and building on what the manager said was a positive second half [against Hungary.]”

Asked to elaborate on that changed mindset, Cullen said, “It’s more the experiences we have been through as a group. Looking back, there are a lot more players with a lot more caps since [the 2022 loss in Yerevan.]

“Knowing we need to be as fully-prepared as if we are playing one of the bigger nations. Just the experience you gain as you go along has helped us, and through those experiences we know what to expect and know what we have to do.”