Gavin Cooney reports from the Aviva Stadium

IRELAND BOSS HEIMIR Hallgrimsson was not getting carried away with Ireland’s 1-0 win at home to Finland tonight, saying he is not “jumping for joy”, admitting Ireland’s performance level will have to improve to if they are to have a realistic shot at qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. 

Evan Ferguson’s goal just before half-time have Ireland a lead to which they ultimately clung, thanks mainly to Caoimhín Kelleher’s penalty save. 

“We are not jumping for joy today, I think we could have done much better than we did”, said Hallgrimsson. “Obviously it was enough to win and that is a good thing.

“But we know we need to work a lot as a unit, as a group to progress because if we want to qualify for the World Cup, we need to beat teams that are higher-ranked than us and get points from them, and I would say with this performance, we probably wouldn’t.

“But it was enough today and that’s good, and we’ll build on that. It’s good to have a win for the spirit and I think these players need to experience that as often as they can.

“But we’re under no illusion we need to improve.”

Hallgrimsson continued, “Winning is always good. Not only the points but psychologically it is good to have a win. Good to give the fans a win at home, a good feeling. Performance: some good, some bad. We were lucky, Caoimhín saved a penalty, they hit the post two times. 

“This group of players probably deserved luck: they’ve been unlucky many times. We are under no illusions that we need to play better than we did today.”

His main concern was the over-enthusiasm of his players’ pressing: while he called for more energy from the off than he saw in either game in the October window, Hallgrimsson said his players too often broke from their shape and left themselves vulnerable. 

“Everyone wanted to be aggressive from the beginning and it kind of resulted in being over-ambitious at times, pressing and breaking out from the team; pressing out of shape. We opened the team at times, once we gave [Finland] options they will take them. 

“Especially defending, we were over-ambitious at times instead of being a bit more tactical; waiting for our moments to press. They played in between our shape and found spaces.

“On the ball, once we did it well, we looked really good, when we moved the ball quickly from from flank to flank.  Festy and Mikey did a really good job one-v-one, delivered a lot of crosses.

“We got a lot of set plays, corners, free kicks that we didn’t use well enough.

“It was a little Jekyll and Hyde performance. Mostly happy with the energy for 90 minutes. We need to be a little bit smarter in the basics.” 

The result means Ireland are guaranteed a third-place finish in their Nations League group, and go to Wembley on Sunday to face England with nothing to play for. Ireland must now play a two-legged play-off next March against a League C runner-up to guarantee their League B status, which in turns makes it more likely they will be drawn in a four-team World Cup qualifying group. In that event, the entire campaign would be a sprint played out across next September, October, and November. 

Of more immediate concern is the clash with Lee Carsley’s England on Sunday, with Hallgrimsson hopeful that Festy Ebosele will be available having been forced off in the second half of tonight’s win. 

“It was always two matches really different from each other”, said Hallgrimsson when asked about Sunday’s game. “I think this one – and we talked about it – was the most important one

“Now we have the three points, so probably we go a little bit more relaxed into the England game. It hasn’t any meaning in the positioning in the group. It’s of course important for Fifa [ranking] points for us to get something from that game.

“I think even though it’s maybe not fully deserve to go with a clean sheet, it gives us a certain confidence going into the England game”