Gavin Cooney reports from Lisbon

IRELAND MANAGER HEIMIR Hallgrimsson says his side must be “perfect” if they are to have any hope of a result away to Portugal in their World Cup qualifier tomorrow night. 

“We know that we need to have almost a perfect game to get something from this match”, said Hallgrimsson at his pre-match press conference.

“And if we do, we have a chance to steal a point or to win the game. Obviously, we need to try to keep a clean sheet. That’s always going to make it easier.

“We know from their past matches and against almost all their opponents, they will have possession, let’s say, 60-70 per cent tomorrow.

“There will not be unlikely statistics from past games. So we will be defending a lot of the time. That will be the most challenging thing.

“And the goalscoring threats from their players is not one player, it’s a lot of them. So we cannot be focusing on one and then just another one will shine. That’s going to be the toughest one.

“And then for our forwards to use the opportunities we get, probably there’s not going to be many goalscoring chances we have, but we must maximise what we take from our chances.”

Remarkably, Hallgrimsson was asked more about last month’s 2-1 loss in Armenia than he was about the forthcoming game against the side ranked fifth in the world, indicative not just of the damage of that result but perhaps of extremely low expectations. 

“I think for the players to have a good performance, yes, they definitely believe more and give them more confidence”, said Hallgrimsson. “That was taken away from us, if I can say that, in Armenia.

“We go for this match, like every match, to try to get something from it. We have a game plan that we think is going to work. We’ll see tomorrow if that materialises. But obviously if you look at the table, we need at least minimum three points from this camp.

“And for obvious reasons, when you look at it, it’s probably the Armenia game [at home on Tuesday] that everybody is saying, OK, we can have a good performance and a better performance than in Armenia and get three points there.” 

The squad debriefed on the Armenia game on Tuesday, and they’ll return to this analysis once they get Portugal out of the way. 

Hallgrimsson was asked about Finn Azaz’ mid-week comments, in which the Southampton midfielder said the Irish players did not understand the quality of the Armenian players along with the challenges of the pitch and the atmosphere. 

“Shouldn’t have”, replied the manager in specific reference to Azaz. “But players are different, they take in information in a different way. Some need more time, some are more visual than listeners, etc. So we’ll have to adjust to everyone.” 

Seamus Coleman and John Egan have been recalled to the squad since the Armenia debacle, with the manager stressing they have been included for their quality along with their experience. 

“We picked them, of course, because of their quality, not because of their personality. But that helps that they have great experience, good leaders, both of them. And that obviously raises the next player’s level, and the more leaders you have, the better team you have.” 

Evan Ferguson meanwhile confirmed he is fit to start having sat out Roma’s most recent game with an ankle issue, while Troy Parrott is available for this game, ahead of schedule. 

Ireland have a fully-fit squad from which to choose, with Liam Scales staying in Ireland for personal reasons.

“I think everyone that played this game in Armenia wants to correct what went wrong there, whether it was personal performance or collective performance”, said Hallgrimsson. “So everybody likes to have this opportunity that we have tomorrow to play against one of the best teams in the world and to correct what went wrong. That’s it.

“Whether there will be personal changes, I think every true professional likes an opportunity like we have tomorrow.”