HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON SAYS he is taking a glass half-full approach into next month’s decisive World Cup window.

And the Republic of Ireland manager insists his side are capable of taking all three points at home to Portugal before a final-day clash away in Hungary that could then determine who qualifies for a play-off spot.

Hallgrímsson understandably stressed the positives of Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Armenia, citing once again that it came on the back of a painful late defeat in Lisbon a few days earlier and reversed the trend of Ireland dropping points in the second game of a window.

He also pointed out that they were able to keep a clean sheet by remaining defensively firm, although jokingly acknowledged how two red cards at home to Hungary and Armenia helped turn things in their favour at crucial times.

“Let’s just try to produce a red card,” he said, laughing. “We have nothing to lose, we know that.

“There’s a lot of reasons why we are passive. Probably because we haven’t had a run of success in games in the past, been criticised, etc. There’s a lot of reasons. But now we have played two games, a tough one in Portugal, one here and we’ve conceded one goal in this camp. I would consider that really a big positive, a big positive.

“I’ve realised we needed to find a way not to concede as many goals,” Hallgrímsson said. “I think this team must win on keeping clean sheets or conceding as few goals as possible.

“When you have opponents like Hungary with all their individual quality, when you have opponents like Portugal with all their goals in their players, you need to be solid in defence. I think that’s our way to win games at this moment.”

Portugal are the runaway group leaders but were unable to confirm automatic qualification against Hungary after conceding an injury-time equaliser for a 2-2 draw.

It took a similarly late goal in Lisbon for Roberto Martinez’s side to break Ireland’s resistance and it means they come to Dublin next month needing a victory to top the group.

“They have a squad of players playing in the Champions League day in, day out. I don’t think we have a single player playing in the Champions League. So it’s obviously an abundance of individual quality in that team,” Hallgrímsson said.

“But the scary thing about them is that there’s goals in almost every player. You look at him, he can score. You look at this one, he can score. So there’s a lot of goals in this team, but they’re not flawless and no team is. And they have shown now against Hungary, against us, we could have stolen it. That they are not unbeatable.”

On the topic of his players dropping too deep and not putting Armenia under enough pressure higher up the pitch, Hallgrímsson admitted he is still struggling for solutions.

“Obviously, if I had the answer we would change it. We’re trying to find, is it this? is it this? is it this? I think it was a good step bringing in Seamus [Coleman]. He brought in confidence, but he can obviously only connect with the ones around him. He cannot affect the players on the other side. So, more of this maybe would be one.”

Some of the criticism that has come his way has been the lack of consistency with selection, and while injuries to the likes of Robbie Brady, Matt Doherty and Troy Parrott have forced his hand, the decision to leave Coleman out last month has come under scrutiny due to his level of performance in the last two games.

The Everton man admitted he was “disappointed” not to be included but Hallgrímsson pointed out it was because both Doherty and club teammate Jake O’Brien were starting regularly in the Premier League.

Jayson Molumby and Festy Ebosele were two of Ireland’s better performers against Armenia but Hallgrímsson insisted they “were absolutely not playing well enough” to be named in his squad last month.

“We would always pick the best team we think is suited to play this next opponent,” he said.

“We can’t have the luxury of thinking backwards. It’s your job, it’s our job as coaches to select in the now, take decisions. We will be criticised for selecting the squad, we will be criticised for selecting the starting XI, we will be criticised for the formation we are playing, etc.

“A pundit or journalist will think ‘oh, we should have done this’ But we never know if that would have been better or if that even would have been worse. So in hindsight, it’s not a luxury we can, as coaches or leaders, have.

“I’ve always been honest to you guys, I wanted to call him (Coleman) in. I thought it was just difficult to justify it. This was a good opportunity to justify it and I think we should get praised too for bringing him in and playing him and he does this well, rather than criticised for not picking him earlier.

“Obviously his club is not playing him, but we believe in him and we play him and I think that should be praised rather than criticised. Again, it’s a half full or a half empty glass.”