Ireland were brave and brimming with effort, but the one-game winning streak came undone against Greece by the latest in a long line of conceding a long-range goal straight after half-time.
This time it was Tasos Bakasetas, the Greece captain, who took advantage of an Irish lapse in concentration.
“It is a trend we need to get rid of soon,” said Josh Cullen. “We come out with every intention to start the second half on the front foot. Maybe by doing that we left some gaps for the opposition.
“It is something we need to look at but the reaction was good. We have to take the positives and move on.”
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Ireland move on to next month’s trip to Wembley and a Nations League relegation play-off against Finland in Dublin.
There are positives. Festy Ebosele was dangerous down the right when he came off the bench, Jack Taylor looked the part on debut while Kasey McAteer could have a bright future in the green shirt.
“I thought the lads who came on were magnificent,” said Cullen. “It showed that we have a good young squad. It is a good to see new players coming in and making an impact.
“We have to finish next month with two strong performances.”
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson was pleased with his team’s reaction to the first goal.
“It seemed like the pressure was gone once we conceded,” said Hallgrímsson. “We had more belief in what we were doing. It was the same against Finland. Our passing, playing forward, pressing, all of it had more belief.
“They were better than us by far in the first half but we didn’t concede a goal.
“We know we can do better,” he continued “We knew the first half would be tough. At training, at every meeting we are trying to fix things. The goal came through the heart of the team, we cannot allow that.
“But we turned it around to our benefit, got some chances, moved the ball much better and had a chance to get a point, which would have been a good result.
“There are some positives to take away from this game but you never want to lose 2-0.”
The Icelander is already repeating himself about the same problems that are torturing Ireland, game in game out.
“It is a good team with good players. They have too little belief going into these games. We need to have our chests forward. There is belief in this team for sure, and I have belief in them. I hope people can see that this team can be really, really good on their day.”
