HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON DESCRIBED Ireland’s pairing with Bulgaria in the Nations League relegation play-offs as an “okay draw”, forecasting a low-scoring tie. 

The Nations League has this year expanded to include promotion/relegation play-offs, with those finishing third in their groups playing off over two legs against a group runner-up from the league below. 

Ireland were today pitted against Bulgaria in these play-offs, at a draw held at Uefa HQ in Nyon. The first leg will be held in Bulgaria in March next year, with the return leg in Dublin three days later. 

By drawing Bulgaria Ireland avoided ties with Slovakia, Armenia, or Kosovo.  

Bulgaria finished second behind Northern Ireland in their League C group, ahead of Belarus and Luxembourg. Ireland last faced Bulgaria in the 2020 Nations League under Stephen Kenny: they drew 1-1 away from home in Kenny’s first game in charge, and then drew 0-0 in Dublin to relegate Bulgaria to League C. 

“I think Bulgaria is an okay draw. It’s not my favourite, it’s not the worst”, said Hallgrimsson. 

“Slovakia was the highest Fifa-ranked team and everyone would like to avoid them. Yeah it’s probably going to be an equal game like most of these set-ups. They were in a group with Northern Ireland and if I remember correctly they lost 5-0 in Belfast but that is kind of an outlier in all the results.

“They had four clean sheets in that group and somebody had told me Ireland had them in the group in 2020 and it was two draws. You would expect a low scoring game when you look at the goals and statistics.

“It’s good to have a home advantage [in the second leg]. It’s a tricky place to go to, Bulgaria. If you look at their results, it’s a lot of low-scoring games. Clean sheets is their strength. That is going to be a tricky thing to break them down, for sure.”

It may prove vital for Ireland to stave off relegation from League B to benefit their seeding for Euro 2028 qualification, if they are to avail of a wildcard spot for co-hosts if they fail to qualify via the traditional means.

Uefa have yet to confirm those arrangements, but relegation to League C would guarantee that Ireland would have the worst Nations League record among all the co-hosts if that does prove to be the tie-breaker, with Northern Ireland promoted to League B ahead of Bulgaria. 

There has been a persistent strand of thought that Ireland would actually benefit from relegation, however, given they have perennially battled against the drop from League B since the competition was launched. Across 22 League B games since 2018, Ireland have won just four. 

Hallgrimsson, however, believes it is important that Ireland beat Bulgaria to stay in League B. 

“Well, it’s different opinions as to how important it is to be in League B, some say it’s even better to be in Group C to have more chances of winning games”, said Hallgrimsson. “My opinion is that you should always play the stronger team and try to improve that way. That’s my opinion and I think it’s important that if we want to try to qualify for finals it’s always better to play better teams than not.” 

Today’s draw was Hallgrimsson’s first media engagement since the 5-0 hammering at Wembley last Sunday, in which Ireland’s flinty first-half display was swept away after Liam Scales’ red card early int he second half. 

Hallgrimsson plans to travel to games in the UK to speak with his players over the coming weeks, as Ireland try to move on from a brutal experience. 

“If you look at our games, this second half [against England] is an outlier in our performance, so hopefully time will heal these wounds”, said Hallgrimsson. “Now, it’s a little bit of a quieter time for me and a good time to look back and reflect and just gather every key note that I’ve put in my diary and go through it, and gather my thoughts.”