HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON DESCRIBED Ireland’s pairing with Bulgaria in the Nations League relegation play-offs as an “okay draw”, forecasting a low-scoring tie.
The Nations League has this year expanded to include promotion/relegation play-offs, with those finishing third in their groups playing off over two legs against a group runner-up from the league below.
Ireland were today pitted against Bulgaria in these play-offs, at a draw held at Uefa HQ in Nyon. The first leg will be held in Bulgaria in March next year, with the return leg in Dublin three days later.
By drawing Bulgaria Ireland avoided ties with Slovakia, Armenia, or Kosovo.
Bulgaria finished second behind Northern Ireland in their League C group, ahead of Belarus and Luxembourg. Ireland last faced Bulgaria in the 2020 Nations League under Stephen Kenny: they drew 1-1 away from home in Kenny’s first game in charge, and then drew 0-0 in Dublin to relegate Bulgaria to League C.
“I think Bulgaria is an okay draw. It’s not my favourite, it’s not the worst”, said Hallgrimsson.
“Slovakia was the highest Fifa-ranked team and everyone would like to avoid them. Yeah it’s probably going to be an equal game like most of these set-ups. They were in a group with Northern Ireland and if I remember correctly they lost 5-0 in Belfast but that is kind of an outlier in all the results.
“They had four clean sheets in that group and somebody had told me Ireland had them in the group in 2020 and it was two draws. You would expect a low scoring game when you look at the goals and statistics.
“It’s good to have a home advantage [in the second leg]. It’s a tricky place to go to, Bulgaria. If you look at their results, it’s a lot of low-scoring games. Clean sheets is their strength. That is going to be a tricky thing to break them down, for sure.”
It may prove vital for Ireland to stave off relegation from League B to benefit their seeding for Euro 2028 qualification, if they are to avail of a wildcard spot for co-hosts if they fail to qualify via the traditional means.
Uefa have yet to confirm those arrangements, but relegation to League C would guarantee that Ireland would have the worst Nations League record among all the co-hosts if that does prove to be the tie-breaker, with Northern Ireland promoted to League B ahead of Bulgaria.
There has been a persistent strand of thought that Ireland would actually benefit from relegation, however, given they have perennially battled against the drop from League B since the competition was launched. Across 22 League B games since 2018, Ireland have won just four.
Hallgrimsson, however, believes it is important that Ireland beat Bulgaria to stay in League B.
“Well, it’s different opinions as to how important it is to be in League B, some say it’s even better to be in Group C to have more chances of winning games”, said Hallgrimsson. “My opinion is that you should always play the stronger team and try to improve that way. That’s my opinion and I think it’s important that if we want to try to qualify for finals it’s always better to play better teams than not.”
Today’s draw was Hallgrimsson’s first media engagement since the 5-0 hammering at Wembley last Sunday, in which Ireland’s flinty first-half display was swept away after Liam Scales’ red card early int he second half.
Hallgrimsson plans to travel to games in the UK to speak with his players over the coming weeks, as Ireland try to move on from a brutal experience.
“If you look at our games, this second half [against England] is an outlier in our performance, so hopefully time will heal these wounds”, said Hallgrimsson. “Now, it’s a little bit of a quieter time for me and a good time to look back and reflect and just gather every key note that I’ve put in my diary and go through it, and gather my thoughts.”
Ive no idea how the nations league works all i know looking forward to the world cup draw
Referees favour the bigger nations in international football. It was an absolute disgrace the way England got every decision last sunday from the Belgian ref. Over 15 years since Henrys handball, nothings changed. Should easily beat Bulgaria but the world cup draw is the important one. And whether we’re good enough or not, we’ve got little or no chance. UEFA want the bigger nations qualified and countries like Ireland will be cheated again.
@Donie Nagle: Yeah it’s all UEFA”s fault that we’re so c**p. Nothing to do of course with years of underinvestment in the LOI, all the foreigners in English football, poor management from the FAI etc.
@The Firestarter: Im talking about specifically our games in general. Perfect goal disallowed in Finland, clear pen not given in Greece and 2 stonewall pens at wembley in 1st half with Walker also last man. Nobody wants to blame referees but no team can win with those clear mistakes. If they’re for England then both pens are given straight away. You cant compete with that.
@Donie Nagle: Finland are a football super power favoured by officialdom – really? Clasping at straws comes to mind.
@JJB: What are you on about? Im talking about the decisions specifically against us and if they’re right or wrong. The goal scored in Finland was wrongly disallowed as replays clearly showed. Finland got a penalty at the Aviva which was a clear penalty. I cant remember one decision thats gone our way thats been 50/50. Let me know if there has been.
Glorified friendlies
@burrito girl: Pretty much
Where we are at the moment it’s winnable and losable. The Nations League in not too bad at matching up similar sides with the occasional anomalies like England and Sweden. I think it’s better than the old friendlies we had, even though doing well in the thing will never compare to a good WC/Euro run.
Just as well that second half performance against England came early in the new manager’s tenure…..
The world cup draw will be good to see who we get. We might get lucky and get teams who are starting to age a bit.
Think we beat Bulgaria in a friendly recently enough. Pretty good draw considering we could of got Sweden which in itself doesn’t make sense and is a bit of a nonsense that we’re in group B and Sweden are in group C who would be much better and probably beat us 8 times out of every 10
If they got San Marino they still struggle
@Simon Dwyer: who
Day will beat us
@Alan Moloney: Just like galway beating the dubs
@Alan Moloney: I thought Day played snooker?
@Angles MacManus: Day does dough, doesn’t he dough.
@Angles MacManus: Are golf jason