Gavin Cooney reports from Hristo Botev Stadium, Plovdiv

Bulgaria 1

Republic of Ireland 2

ON THIS BASIS Ireland will remain locked in their cold embrace with Nations League B, as a 2-1 victory in Plovdiv leaves them halfway to shaking off the reach of Bulgaria in this two-legged relegation play-off. 

A paltry 5,000 crowd didn’t make a hostile atmosphere for the Irish players, so instead they laid their own gauntlet by conceding from Bulgaria’s first attack after only five minutes. They recovered admirably, however, and headers from Finn Azaz and Matt Doherty completed a second come-from-behind win on the road in four attempts. 

The victory is vital in the context of this play-off but also augurs well for the serious business of the World Cup play-offs later this year.

Hallgrimsson was hired by the FAI under the eternal HR principle of Be Different To The Last Guy and tonight was the latest evidence that he’s soaking his qualities of flexibility and improvisation into this team. 

There were therefore only four surviving starters from Ireland’s most recent game – The England Incident – and he prioritised match fitness, so Troy Parrott led the line in place of Evan Ferguson, who has swapped the fringes of one Premier League club for another.

It was hard to piece together the line-up when it landed, with two left-backs selected in Robbie Brady and Ryan Manning, the latter starting in spite of not even making the initial squad. Brady started at left-back with Manning in front of him, with Hallgrimsson pointing out before the game that Ireland’s attacking plan should be pretty easy to figure out given they had two left-footers on the left and two right-footers on the right. 

And early on Ireland made good use of the width of an appalling pitch in Plovdiv: they pinged the ball wide left to Brady, who pushed the ball inside to Manning, who in turn stood up a cross for Finn Azaz, arriving in the box. The goalkeeper claimed the ball, but it was an early sight of the attacking patterns weaved this week on the training pitch. 

Hallgrimsson, however, is not working on a blank canvas, and Ireland were quickly struck down by their own peculiar voodoo. In spite of their zippy start Ireland fell behind to the opposition’s first attack, which was yet again scored via a shot from long range. Playing Ireland promotes more outside-the-box thinking than a standard corporate retreat. 

Ireland’s fault was their baffling passivity, with Dara O’Shea allowing Filip Krastev inside him before then giving him too much room to back-heel the ball to the arriving Marin Petkov, who curled the ball slowly in off the post. Ireland’s many left-backs were missing in action. 

Suddenly Ireland’s confidence woes rushed to the surface again. They wobbled badly for a few minutes after the goal, struggling to play out from the back, clumsily ceding possession in dangerous areas. When Nathan Collins tried to play a cute pass around Kiril Despodov rather than boot the ball clear, he was fortunate to see Despodov curl his shot directly at Caoimhín Kelleher seconds later. 

Ireland rode out their own storm, however, and re-asserted control, with Parrott causing trouble by darting in behind as Azaz dropped off and neatly linked play.

Ireland’s primary strength remained down the flanks, however, and Manning arrived at the back post to head over Azaz’ cross. The equaliser arrived in mirror image: a big switch of play to Brady on the left, whose deep cross was met by Parrott and brilliantly flicked across goal for Azaz to nod in, unmarked and into an empty net. Ireland were aided by the Bulgarian goalkeeper becoming transfixed by the cross and thus vacating his goal. 

Parrott’s selection was utterly justified. Tonight he was tireless and ran at the Bulgarian defence in jousts, punching holes for either himself or others. His sharpness was captured when he peeled off the back of the Bulgarian wall to receive a quick free-kick: Collins was inches from connecting with Parrott’s drawn shot as it trundled wide of the far post. 

Ireland played a 4-4-2 out of possession, but with the ball they were set up in a back three. Brady pushed up high on the left, with Manning tucking into a central, number 10 position along with Azaz. Mikey Johnston, meanwhile, played as a very attacking kind of right wing-back. Hallgrimsson warned yesterday of the importance of Ireland’s “rest defence” to guard against the Bulgarian counter-attacks.

Hence when Ireland had the ball, they always kept a narrow back three and two midfielders in front to ensure they couldn’t be carved open. But as Hallgrimsson has shown, he has no truck for monotheism, and so Ireland’s lead goal came when they broke from this structure. 

 Cullen dropped into space to the left touchline and Doherty sallied forth from centre-back, timing his run perfectly to meet Cullen’s clipped pass and head bravely beyond the Bulgarian goalkeeper, who had gone for another ruinous walk. The goalkeeper stayed down on the ground for treatment, and was subbed at half-tie. The prognosis was a bruised ego. 

Matt Doherty scores the winning goal. Kostadin Andonov / INPHO Kostadin Andonov / INPHO / INPHO

Ireland’s half-time lead was deserved and truly their only major threat was themselves, with Collins flirting regularly with disaster. He got away with one blind backpass to Kelleher, and later steadied himself in the six-yard box to play a clean pass right to an opponent. Better teams will punish these brainfreezes…as, indeed, they have been doing for years. 

The second half was, happily from an Irish point of view, the kind of soporific fare for which Nations League relegation play-offs were designed. On display was Ireland’s new-found cynicism, which for decency’s sake we will call maturity. Ireland consistently won a series of cheap free-kicks, with Manning in the starring role. 

With the first signs of Bulgarian pressure, Hallgrimsson emptied his bench to re-inject some energy. Evan Ferguson was part of a triple sub in which Hallgrimsson changed his entire front three, while a few minutes later Rocco Vata was given his senior debut, replacing Manning. 

With Jake O’Brien also introduced, Doherty shifted to left back and there was momentary panic late in the game when he was skated past too easily by Bozhidar Kraev, but O’Shea was in the right spot to block the cross. 

Bulgaria otherwise toiled, utterly unable to play through Ireland’s Two Banks of Four. There was one moment of concern in the final minute of stoppage time when Ferguson slipped on the pitiful pitch and was clattered by Nikolay Minkov. The Irish players, led by Collins, rushed to remonstrate with the referee, who ultimately settled on a yellow card. Ferguson picked himself up and finished the game, but Hallgrimsson will be heartened by his players’ protestations, given he spoke before the game of the need to be more “aggressive” in making their case to officials. 

His players are responding to him in every which way. 

“We are staying up,” sang the Irish fans after the game, and with some work left to do, everyone can chalk this down as a good night’s work. 

Bulgaria: Dimitar Mitov (Plamen Iliev, HT) ; Viktor Popov, Zhivko Atanasov, Alex Petkov, Fabian Nuernberger (Nikolay Minkov, 70′); Kiril Despodov, Filip Krastev (Ilian Iliev 89′), Ilia Gruev, Lukas Petkov (Bozhidar Kraev, 70′); Andrian Kraev (Vladimir Nikolov, 89′), Marin Petkov 

Republic of Ireland: Caoimhín Kelleher; Matt Doherty, Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, Robbie Brady; Josh Cullen, Jason Knight (Jake O’Brien, 79′); Mikey Johnston (Mark Sykes, 75′), Finn Azaz (Jack Taylor, 75′), Ryan Manning (Rocco Vata, 79′); Troy Parrott (Evan Ferguson, 75′)