LET’S BE honest — last night, Bulgaria were the prototypical ‘no great shakes’.
But the 10th anniversary of the last time Ireland qualified for a major tournament will be in November.
And what has transpired in almost a decade since Euro 2016 means the country can hardly afford to be dismissive about any victory, regardless of the opposition.
Of course, the deep problems with Irish soccer precede the Heimir Hallgrímsson era and he has inherited a team badly lacking in confidence, which is why he did his best to play down expectations ahead of this week’s two-legged affair.
The last thing this somewhat psychologically brittle group needs is added pressure or feelings of entitlement among their supporters.
And in many ways, it was the ideal setting for such circumstances. A more-than-half-empty stadium, a crowd of around 5,000 largely indifferent home fans disillusioned by Bulgaria’s own grievous footballing problems was about as low stakes as you can get from an ostensibly competitive fixture.
And the Icelandic coach’s record now reads: three victories and four losses.
When you consider that the defeats came against strong opposition, Greece and England, it is legitimate to ask whether any other manager in his position would have fared much better.
There is no doubt that Hallgrímsson has restored morale that was needed, especially after their most recent match before Plodiv — a demoralising 5-0 thrashing by England at Wembley.
But most importantly, the Ireland boss got the big decisions right last night.
Ryan Manning and to a lesser extent, Matt Doherty, were the surprising starting XI inclusions.
Some people, notably RTÉ pundit Dietmar Hamann, were critical of Evan Ferguson’s omission, despite the out-of-sorts striker’s lack of minutes at club level this season.
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In addition, there had been a clamour for in-form Everton star Jake O’Brien to start at right-back, while Manning wasn’t even included in the original squad.
Yet the Galway native and Doherty defied the naysayers with solid performances, and the latter scored the winner with a brave header from Josh Cullen’s inviting cross-field pass.
But perhaps the player who will have given Hallgrímsson the most cause for optimism was Finn Azaz.
The 24-year-old has been outstanding this season for Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough.
No player in the Championship has managed more than Azaz’s 11 assists while the former Aston Villa youngster has also scored 10 goals for the playoff hopefuls.
So far though, the London-born player had failed to replicate this sparkling form at international level.
His five caps before Thursday night do not stand out in the memory.
To be fair, three of them were late appearances off the bench and the two starts were in the friendly defeat of Hungary and the win away to Finland.
So Azaz’s chances to impress have been somewhat limited up to this point, and if he could previously be accused of not fully seizing these rare opportunities, the same complaint could not be levelled at him last night.
In the first half, Azaz was at the heart of most of Ireland’s best attacking moments.
His crucial equalising goal might have been a simple header into an empty net, but he showed intelligent movement and anticipation to find himself on the end of Troy Parrott’s deft volley in the first place.
There was also a cross to set up a Ryan Manning header in the early stages and another to pick out the same player 11 minutes later, among other bright attacking moments.
It should be pointed out that Parrott performed this role at times too. The 23-year-old may have been chosen to lead the line, but he has a Teddy Sheringham-esque tendency to drop deep and allow others to occupy the more advanced space, which is why he has sometimes been played as an out-and-out number 10 or wide attacker rather than a nine.
So there is a similarly compelling long-term case to play the AZ Alkmaar star off Ferguson, although doing so would likely either mean not accommodating Azaz in the 10 role or reverting to the five-man defence that Hallgrímsson invariably shunned during his reign.
Either way, probably the biggest problem for Ireland is that they have badly lacked creativity in recent years.
In their last 10 matches, the team have managed only five goals.
Probably not since Wes Hoolahan retired near the end of the Martin O’Neill era have Ireland had the type of footballer in the centre of the pitch capable of conjuring something out of nothing.
And it is no coincidence that in the time since then, the team has never really looked like serious contenders to qualify for major international tournaments.
Granted, the usual caveats apply. Azaz or Parrott will need to prove themselves against sterner opposition than Bulgaria, who are 82nd, 22 places below Ireland, in the Fifa rankings.
But last night’s performance will provide a significant confidence boost to these individual players and the team alike.
Azaz therefore must maintain the performance level he showed last night and demonstrated frequently at club level. If he does, there is no reason why he can’t become a mainstay in the team under Hallgrímsson and make Ireland far less predictable to play against than they have routinely been in the past.
It is widely accepted that the Boys in Green are relatively well-stocked in terms of goalkeepers and defenders.
With the potential of Ferguson coupled with Parrott and Adam Idah enjoying career-best seasons, there is scope for positivity up top too.
On the other hand, midfield feels like the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle. But promising signs are starting to emerge from the ingenuity of Azaz, complemented by the reliable, workman-like combination of Josh Cullen and Jason Knight behind him.
With the similarly creative Andrew Moran beginning to blossom and strong attacking options like Chiedozie Ogbene, Sammie Szmodics and Festy Ebosele also still to return, perhaps for the first time since his appointment, there is a sense of real momentum behind the Hallgrímsson era.
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Can Ireland's man of the match solve their biggest problem?
LET’S BE honest — last night, Bulgaria were the prototypical ‘no great shakes’.
But the 10th anniversary of the last time Ireland qualified for a major tournament will be in November.
And what has transpired in almost a decade since Euro 2016 means the country can hardly afford to be dismissive about any victory, regardless of the opposition.
Of course, the deep problems with Irish soccer precede the Heimir Hallgrímsson era and he has inherited a team badly lacking in confidence, which is why he did his best to play down expectations ahead of this week’s two-legged affair.
The last thing this somewhat psychologically brittle group needs is added pressure or feelings of entitlement among their supporters.
And in many ways, it was the ideal setting for such circumstances. A more-than-half-empty stadium, a crowd of around 5,000 largely indifferent home fans disillusioned by Bulgaria’s own grievous footballing problems was about as low stakes as you can get from an ostensibly competitive fixture.
And the Icelandic coach’s record now reads: three victories and four losses.
When you consider that the defeats came against strong opposition, Greece and England, it is legitimate to ask whether any other manager in his position would have fared much better.
There is no doubt that Hallgrímsson has restored morale that was needed, especially after their most recent match before Plodiv — a demoralising 5-0 thrashing by England at Wembley.
But most importantly, the Ireland boss got the big decisions right last night.
Ryan Manning and to a lesser extent, Matt Doherty, were the surprising starting XI inclusions.
Some people, notably RTÉ pundit Dietmar Hamann, were critical of Evan Ferguson’s omission, despite the out-of-sorts striker’s lack of minutes at club level this season.
In addition, there had been a clamour for in-form Everton star Jake O’Brien to start at right-back, while Manning wasn’t even included in the original squad.
Yet the Galway native and Doherty defied the naysayers with solid performances, and the latter scored the winner with a brave header from Josh Cullen’s inviting cross-field pass.
But perhaps the player who will have given Hallgrímsson the most cause for optimism was Finn Azaz.
The 24-year-old has been outstanding this season for Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough.
No player in the Championship has managed more than Azaz’s 11 assists while the former Aston Villa youngster has also scored 10 goals for the playoff hopefuls.
So far though, the London-born player had failed to replicate this sparkling form at international level.
His five caps before Thursday night do not stand out in the memory.
To be fair, three of them were late appearances off the bench and the two starts were in the friendly defeat of Hungary and the win away to Finland.
So Azaz’s chances to impress have been somewhat limited up to this point, and if he could previously be accused of not fully seizing these rare opportunities, the same complaint could not be levelled at him last night.
In the first half, Azaz was at the heart of most of Ireland’s best attacking moments.
His crucial equalising goal might have been a simple header into an empty net, but he showed intelligent movement and anticipation to find himself on the end of Troy Parrott’s deft volley in the first place.
There was also a cross to set up a Ryan Manning header in the early stages and another to pick out the same player 11 minutes later, among other bright attacking moments.
It should be pointed out that Parrott performed this role at times too. The 23-year-old may have been chosen to lead the line, but he has a Teddy Sheringham-esque tendency to drop deep and allow others to occupy the more advanced space, which is why he has sometimes been played as an out-and-out number 10 or wide attacker rather than a nine.
So there is a similarly compelling long-term case to play the AZ Alkmaar star off Ferguson, although doing so would likely either mean not accommodating Azaz in the 10 role or reverting to the five-man defence that Hallgrímsson invariably shunned during his reign.
Either way, probably the biggest problem for Ireland is that they have badly lacked creativity in recent years.
In their last 10 matches, the team have managed only five goals.
Probably not since Wes Hoolahan retired near the end of the Martin O’Neill era have Ireland had the type of footballer in the centre of the pitch capable of conjuring something out of nothing.
And it is no coincidence that in the time since then, the team has never really looked like serious contenders to qualify for major international tournaments.
Granted, the usual caveats apply. Azaz or Parrott will need to prove themselves against sterner opposition than Bulgaria, who are 82nd, 22 places below Ireland, in the Fifa rankings.
But last night’s performance will provide a significant confidence boost to these individual players and the team alike.
Azaz therefore must maintain the performance level he showed last night and demonstrated frequently at club level. If he does, there is no reason why he can’t become a mainstay in the team under Hallgrímsson and make Ireland far less predictable to play against than they have routinely been in the past.
It is widely accepted that the Boys in Green are relatively well-stocked in terms of goalkeepers and defenders.
With the potential of Ferguson coupled with Parrott and Adam Idah enjoying career-best seasons, there is scope for positivity up top too.
On the other hand, midfield feels like the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle. But promising signs are starting to emerge from the ingenuity of Azaz, complemented by the reliable, workman-like combination of Josh Cullen and Jason Knight behind him.
With the similarly creative Andrew Moran beginning to blossom and strong attacking options like Chiedozie Ogbene, Sammie Szmodics and Festy Ebosele also still to return, perhaps for the first time since his appointment, there is a sense of real momentum behind the Hallgrímsson era.
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