IRELAND BOSS Heimir Hallgrimsson gave a refreshingly frank post-match assessment following Tuesday’s demoralising 2-0 loss to Greece at the Aviva Stadium.
“Winning is a habit, but unfortunately losing is too,” he told RTÉ. “You can kind of sense that there is a lack of confidence in this team.
“We only needed to give them a sniff of a chance and they were 1-0 up. I think it was their first chance at goal, and that is what happens to a team without confidence, they concede a goal in this manner.”
Of course, Hallgrimsson’s sentiments that losing is a habit for Ireland has long been established.
Excluding matches versus Gibraltar, they have been beaten in 11 of their last 14 competitive fixtures.
It is six years since they played their first-ever Nations League encounter — a Martin O’Neill-managed side suffered a 4-1 defeat to Wales in 2018.
Much time has passed since then, but Ireland’s record in the competition has been invariably dismal. It reads: won two (against Scotland and Armenia), lost 10 and drawn six.
One of the only positives is that the Boys in Green have never been relegated.
They did finish bottom of their group, below Denmark and Wales, in the 2018-19 edition, but relegation had not been introduced at that stage.
In the 2020-21 equivalent, three draws and three losses were enough to pip relegated Bulgaria to third place, as they finished just below Ireland on two points.
🇮🇪 0-1 🇬🇷: Greece take the lead against the run of play as Ioannidis is gifted far too much time and space on the edge of the Irish penalty area. Some finish though.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 10, 2024
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Ireland again finished third in the 2022-23 Nations League, coming below Scotland and Ukraine, but four points ahead of Armenia, as they picked their only two victories thus far.
The 3-0 home triumph over the Scots, widely regarded as the peak of the Stephen Kenny era, at the time, felt like a sign this young Irish side were moving in the right direction.
Yet more than two years have elapsed since then, and it looks like an unfortunate anomaly rather than a rebirth, with precisely zero similar-level subsequent performances to back it up.
After two games in this campaign, Ireland’s hopes of improving on their three past third-place finishes appear doomed.
Two home losses to Greece and England mean it’s looking like a battle to avoid relegation between Hallgrimsson’s side and Finland, who are also on zero points in the group but beat Ireland home and away in the Nations League in 2020.
To finish second or better, Ireland will likely need to win at least three of their four remaining fixtures, and that scenario seems highly unlikely on the evidence of the error-ridden displays to date.
🇮🇪 0-2 🇬🇷: That's game over for Ireland and it's far too easy for Greece as Tzolis chases down a simple ball over the top from Bakasetas before firing home.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 10, 2024
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And so, 2024 could finally be the year that sees the Boys in Green relegated from the Nations League.
On the one hand, it would be a potentially damaging scenario.
Stephen Kenny often bemoaned the misfortune of being paired in such a difficult group with France and Netherlands for the Euro 2024 qualifiers. But part of the reason for that outcome was the defeats in the Nations League, which hurt Ireland’s seeding and rendered them a pot three team.
Conversely, it could be argued that relegation might have some benefits in the long run.
Greece, the team that have convincingly beaten Ireland on three occasions in the last two years now, are competing in League B for the first time in the competition’s history.
Playing against weaker sides has gradually helped them acquire the habit of winning, to the point where they prevailed in five out of six matches on their way to promotion in the last campaign.
Perhaps an even better example are Georgia.
In recent years, they would have been a team seen as on or below Ireland’s level.
Willy Sagnol’s side earned much admiration for their performances over the summer at Euro 2024, achieving a sensational group-stage win over Portugal before bowing out in the round of 16 against eventual champions Spain.
Yet like Ireland, they had a fairly dreadful Euro 2024 group-stage qualifying campaign, winning only two of eight matches and finishing fourth in a five-team group.
Nevertheless, their superb run in League C of the Nations League, winning five out of six games, meant they qualified for the Euros playoffs regardless and that success served as a springboard for greater days.
Turkey, another team that impressed at the Euros and reached the quarter-finals, also did so on the back of securing promotion from League C, topping a group that featured Luxembourg, Faroe Islands and Lithuania.
In contrast, Ireland’s perpetual stasis in League B feels like purgatory.
They are not good enough to beat most teams at this level but not quite bad enough to finish bottom — at least, until now perhaps.
Relegation to League C would create plenty of doom-laden headlines and might put some pressure on Hallgrimsson even at this early stage of his tenure.
But it would also multiply the number of winnable fixtures exponentially and give the squad a better chance of attaining that elusive confidence, which even their new coach admits they lack.
