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Heimir Hallgrimsson during the game at Wembley. Ryan Byrne/INPHO

'Looking for excuses when you lose 5-0 is kind of pathetic...it's embarrassing'

Heimir Hallgrimsson said there were positives in Ireland’s first half display, but have been lost beneath the five-goal avalanche of the second half.

HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON LAMENTED “six minutes of madness” in which his Irish players collapsed at Wembley. 

Ireland held England scoreless across a diligent, disciplined first half but everything fell apart when Liam Scales picked up a second yellow card five minutes after the break for fouling Jude Bellingham in the box. Harry Kane converted the spot kick, and England scored twice more across the next five minutes. Subsequent goals from Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Harwood-Bellis meant Ireland were routed 5-0. 

“I am kind of lost for words”, said Hallgrimsson. “Six minutes of madness, it was a shock conceding a penalty, conceding a goal, losing a player. We probably lost our heads at this moment leading into a second goal, a third goal. We lost our heads, gave up.

“We are struggling with confidence and it clearly took away all confidence from what we did really well in the first half. You cannot explain things like this, it just happens. A slap in the face and difficult to come back from.” 

Asked to clarify what he meant by the players giving up, he said, “We lost what we were doing in the first half. Maybe too harsh to say ‘give up’, we had a gameplan that was working perfectly but all of a sudden in six minutes there’s no way out.”

Hallgrimsson faced the media trying to balance the positives of Ireland’s first-half performance with the collapse that was to come after the break. 

“Excuses when you lose 5-0 is kind of pathetic, to be excusing or talking about positives”, said Hallgrimsson. “It’s embarrassing to lose 5-0.”

Hallgrimsson did say he believed Ireland should have a first-half penalty, when Evan Ferguson was pulled by Marc Guehi in the penalty area.

“I thought it was a penalty for sure. We asked, I don’t remember what the referee said or why he didn’t give it. It would have changed the momentum of the game but I don’t want to make excuses. 

“Let’s take that as a positive, building this team forward. We need to play teams like England, that have better players than us. First half gave us an idea how we can play against teams like this.” 

Asked whether he now worried he would never be able to improve the confidence levels in the Irish squad, Hallgrimsson said, “if we can play like this for 50 minutes, let’s hope next game we can do it longer and with a little luck. If we had gotten a penalty and scored a goal, it would have been a totally different game. 

“I believe in these guys but the past has been tough. We just need to…use this to our advantage, and look at the positives we can take from this game. A lot of it was negative but for me I think it’s important to look at the positives and build from that.” 

The game was Lee Carsley’s final match in charge of England: he now returns to the U21s to vacate the premises for Thomas Tuchel. He won five of his six matches in charge, losing at home to Greece in October. Today’s win secured top spot in the group for England, and automatic promotion back to League A. 

“I think it is fair to say there is a bit of relief. If we had spoken at the start of the campaign then you would have said ‘well, you are expected to get promotion’ but it is difficult”, said Carsley. “No team has rolled over for us and just let us carry on.

“I have found it challenging personally and the rest of the staff have so it is good that we have finished the campaign with such a strong performance, and I spoke to the players at half-time when it was 0-0.

“I was really happy with the way the crowd responded to the players when they went off the pitch. You could tell that they felt the energy with the team, they intent they had and played with, especially when we lost the ball.

“I said to them that we are going to score. I had total belief that they were going to score so just keep going. And it was pleasing, obviously, to get five goals.”

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    Mute Wandering_Dazed
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:38 PM

    I’m really warming to Heimir! Can’t argue with his summary of the game, a moment where a penalty and sending off put us into a tail spin.

    I hope he can help us be more resilient and learn how to manage games better.

    We have some good young players who are learning their craft at international level. The first 45 showed there is something there.

    Need to find a bit of steel and solidity in the midfield.

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    Mute Sea Point
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    Nov 17th 2024, 10:27 PM

    @Wandering_Dazed: yep, everything went up in smoke after the double punishment (for me, the 2nd yellow was unnecessary if you’re already awarding a penno). England have been in a good place for years now, and have a couple of players good enough to take advantage of a championship level side panicking. 2nd goal was fortunate for them, but a defensive disaster for Ireland. We aren’t even good enough at the moment to shut up shop, we need to have a settled squad, and an identifiable first XI. But really the scoreline didn’t matter, especially once even a point was out of the question…

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    Mute Daire Cathal Greene
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:27 PM

    He’s improved us already. Didn’t expect any points never mind 6. The playoff in March giving us more time for the WC qualifiers will help but still doubt we’ll challenge for qualification.

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:57 PM

    @Daire Cathal Greene: we haven’t a hope or clue we will be eaten alive by even a better team and to make it worse England were not even at there best anyone would beat us how we have fallen

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    Mute Daire Cathal Greene
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    Nov 17th 2024, 9:06 PM

    @Alan Moloney: yeah we’ll need a good draw to even compete with the weakest 1st and 2nd seeds. Could get two heavyweights.

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    Mute Shane
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    Nov 17th 2024, 9:16 PM

    He’s only in but you can see he has some nice ideas, yes 5 0 is poor loss. First half there was a couple of chances. Got our forwards in 1v1 or 2v2 positions. England really didn’t look like scoring and Fiesty was playing a blinder. Was 100% a penalty and no idea why it wasn’t reviewed.

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Nov 17th 2024, 10:01 PM

    The most disappointing thing for me was how poorly we defended set pieces after the sending off. That was something you don’t need 11 players on the field to do well.
    It all looked so good at half time, the first half was really good. Great discipline and workrate. Maybe the manager could have made changes earlier but might not have made any difference.
    Scales first yellow was really unnecessary.

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    Mute Shawn
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    Nov 17th 2024, 10:26 PM

    @Bert Carolan: Same shocking defending

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Nov 17th 2024, 10:31 PM

    @Shawn: After the sending off yes. Good in the first half though. But they fell apart after conceding the penalty.

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    Mute James Johnson
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:31 PM

    England C team. A very very poor Irish squad.

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:58 PM

    @James Johnson: muck

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    Mute Barry Baz
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    Nov 17th 2024, 10:41 PM

    The legacy of John Delany and the FAI is a 5 – 0 defeat.

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    Mute Pat Dunne
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    Nov 18th 2024, 12:25 AM

    Heimir is on the right path, no excuses given for a poor second half performance, knows where we need to improve. I believe he shall get the best out of this Ireland side.

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    Mute Billy Bell
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    Nov 17th 2024, 8:35 PM

    No leaders

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    Mute Halftime
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    Nov 17th 2024, 9:47 PM

    Folded like a cheap suit

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    Mute Terry Moore
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    Nov 18th 2024, 1:06 AM

    .. That’s why Coleman Egan and Duffy are still important to this squad

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    Mute M.chase
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    Nov 18th 2024, 1:32 AM

    Can’t believe Mcguiness had not one foul..

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