Heimir Hallgrimsson admits the Republic of Ireland may need to do something special against Portugal next month if they are to make it to next summer’s World Cup finals.
Ireland’s relief at a hard-fought 1-0 Group F victory over 10-man Armenia was tempered by the news of Hungary’s late equaliser which means they will have to at least deny Cristiano Ronaldo and company at the Aviva Stadium next month before targeting victory in Budapest three days later.
Asked if the 2-2 draw in Lisbon had changed anything, Hallgrimsson said: “Not really, it doesn’t change anything. We always knew that we needed to go to Hungary and have a win there.
“This looks like we need a point against Portugal, or Armenia to do us a favour in Yerevan. We all see that this Armenian team is no roll-over. There’s a big heart, there’s aggression and a spirit that is noticeable.”
Evan Ferguson’s 70th-minute header – his fourth goal in five competitive games for his country – ultimately sealed a vital win at the Aviva Stadium which could, and perhaps should, have been more comfortable after Armenia skipper Tigran Barseghyan’s 52nd-minute dismissal for a headbutt on Finn Azaz.
Ireland were largely passive and uninspired during a lukewarm first half but, aided and abetted by Barseghyan’s premature exit, forced their way across the finishing line to fulfil their head coach’s pre-match prophesy.
Hallgrimsson said: “Listen, we said before this camp we would take a scrappy 1-0 win and it probably was kind of a scrappy 1-0 win, so we can’t be unhappy.
“We’ve been complaining about the second game syndrome – we must be happy that we won the second game; we’ve been complaining about conceding early – we didn’t concede early, we didn’t concede at all, so we kept a clean sheet, that’s a good step.
“We’ll take the positives and carry on to the next window. It’s just a new dawn, it’s a new day next window – this result today doesn’t matter at all.
“We just needed the three points to be alive and have a chance, that’s number one, so we cannot be reading too much into that performance today.
“It was always going to be a tough match for us – we needed to win – and again it’s going to be tough, just a different opponent, players playing higher quality next time.”
Armenia boss Yegishe Melikyan admitted Barseghyan’s rush of blood had cost his side dear, but refused to condemn his indiscipline.
Melikyan said: “Of course, the red card changed the game. It was a mistake.
“He took responsibility. He said sorry to the whole dressing room. But, if a player makes a mistake, it is also my mistake and for that I apologise.
“If there was no red card and we played 11 v 11, I think we could have got a good result. I thought we could have won, but we must go forward and I think we can get good results in the near future.”
