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Heimir Hallgrimsson has urged referee Glenn Nyberg not to give the nod Cristiano Ronaldo to do his work for him republic of ireland aim for a famous victory portugal,
swedish When Hallgrimson’s Ireland team welcome the 40-year-old superstar and his teammates to the Aviva Stadium on Thursday, the official will be the man in the middle who could decide the hosts’ World Cup qualifying Group F fate.
when both sides meet lisbon Last month, a frustrated Ronaldo was in constant conversation with Slovakia’s match official Ivan Kruzliak, who awarded a penalty which the former Manchester United forward had saved by Caoimhin Kelleher, and the Icelander does not want a repeat in Dublin.
The Ireland head coach said: “Obviously it’s up to the referee whether he (Ronaldo) takes part in a game, but the thing in Portugal is that he was not only controlling the referee, he was controlling the whole stadium, so all the fans supported his actions and the referee also played along.
“I hope it will be the reverse now. Now we are in the Aviva. Obviously a player should not referee, but the officials should referee.
“I hope the people here will look at this and recognize that if they want to influence the game, they should at least not influence the referees.”
Ireland defended bravely at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and looked to have secured a point after Kelleher blocked Ronaldo’s spot-kick, only for Ruben Neves to score with a stoppage-time header.
Portugal will clinch top spot and next summer’s finals with a game remaining with a win in the Aviva, which would result in a tie for Ireland if Hungary wins in Armenia earlier in the day.
They trail the Hungarians – who they face in Budapest on Sunday – by one point heading into the final two rounds and may need at least a point from the Portuguese to keep the race for second place alive.
It will be a huge effort for a team ranked 62nd in FIFA’s latest world rankings, 57 places behind the visitors.
Hallgrimsson said: “We can’t play an open game against a good attacking – especially transitional – team like Portugal. We need to be clever in our approach. We need to be clever and cynical in the way we play.”
Ireland last made the final of a major tournament in 2016 and the current generation of players have endured some tough nights during the intervening years, although defender Darra O’Shea is confident they have learned from those tough times.
O’Shea said: “Football is football and sometimes things don’t work out the way they should. In football sometimes you need luck on your side.”
“We’ve done well, but football is a tough game. You either win or learn and we’ve learned a lot. I hope the lessons we’ve learned have taken us to a better place.”