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republic of ireland Their World Cup qualification hopes are already hanging in the balance as they face Portugal on Saturday evening.
last month’s defeat armeniaAfter which a 2-2 draw was played on the home ground. HungaryHeimir Hallgrimsson’s men faced an uphill battle to get out of Group F.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at some of the talking points from a very tough game at Lisbon’s Jose Alvalade stadium.
They think this hall is over?
Icelander Hallgrimsson has played 12 games as Ireland manager, but his current contract only runs for as long as his team is involved in the current campaign. They have put extension talks on hold to focus on the qualifiers, but their future will largely depend on how the next four matches go, having won only four and lost five of their 10 competitive matches so far.
back to basics
Part of Hallgrimsson’s mission when he took over the reins left by Stephen Kenny was to return to type and, like his predecessors Giovanni Trapattoni, Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy, make Ireland difficult to beat. They were anything but successful in their opening two qualifiers, losing 2–0 at home to Hungary before bouncing back to draw, and then suffered the same fate. yerevanWhere despite a goal from Ivan Ferguson they were ultimately unable to dig themselves out of the mud for the second time. This has to change, and fast.
Ivan or Troy
At the other end of the pitch, Ferguson, who scored in both September games to mark his return to form at Roma on loan from Brighton, and AZ Alkmaar troy parrotThose who already have 10 goals to their name this season provide cause for cautious optimism. However, both men reported for duty returning from injury, Ferguson with an ankle problem and Parrott with a knee problem that ruled him out for more than six weeks before a 20-minute run-out at the weekend. It remains to be seen whether either of them will have 90 minutes – the former says he is fully fit.
2015 and all that
If the odds are stacked against them in Lisbon, Hallgrimsson and his players will at least travel buoyed by history. On 8 October 2015, Martin O’Neill’s men secured a 1–0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over world champions Germany in Dublin thanks to Shane Long’s piledriver. A repeat against the team currently ranked fifth in the world by FIFA would represent a similar blow, but would also rekindle their qualification hopes.
Ron to the rescue
The last time these countries met in a competitive encounter on the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland defeated Portugal by under a minute. John Egan’s first-half header looked to have secured three invaluable World Cup qualifying points at the Estadio Algarve in September 2021 when Cristiano Ronaldo, who had earlier had his penalty saved by Gavin Bazunu, came to the rescue with a two-bullet header at the death to snatch victory.