Ireland have potential to improve for clash with Nations League C runner-up, as Andrew Moran’s impressive cameo stands out in defeat to England
Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson at Wembley: he faces task of transforming a third-seed Uefa country into one of the 16 European qualifiers for North America 2026. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpholast Sunday captured the attention of European football anoraks, for all the wrong reasons. A Polish journalist wrote to this correspondent to learn more about the “crisis” surrounding Irish football.
After resounding defeats to England and Greece, both home and away since September, it is unrealistic for the FAI or the 5,000 Irish fans at Wembley to expect their team to qualify for the World Cup but Wales, Czechia, Romania and even Scotland would be favourable second seeds as they try to make the playoffs.
“I don’t think we can just write this off,” said Moran. “We need to be disappointed about it. I don’t think we should just come here and accept that we are going to lose. Narrow victories over Finland, in Dublin and Helsinki, indicate incremental progress under Hallgrímsson, who wants to continually select from a crop of 13 or 14 players. Of the 23 he was forced to start due to injuries across six Nations League fixtures, Caoimhín Kelleher and Nathan Collins mixed outstanding contributions with costly errors. Sammie Szmodics’ commitment to the cause, Festy Ebosele’s penetration down the right and Evan Ferguson’s return to fitness, were also encouraging.
“Finland was a massive win in itself, as it solidified us as third in the group, so regardless of what happened we still have the playoffs in March,” he added. “We’ve loads of work to do, we are not the finished article yet.” “It has been a good time for me,” said the manager. “Now, I’ve seen them. It was necessary for me to give them a chance to show what they can do. Andy Moran came into a terrible position. He showed he was confident to play at this level.”
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