Wembley was not an aberration. Six days later, the 5-0 loss to England remains a result Heimir Hallgrímsson refuses to make excuses about.
He could. Liam Scales’s red card led to a jarring collapse that was in stark contrast to what many long-term observers of the Republic of Ireland believed at half-time – that the first half was the best 45 minutes they could remember from the team.
Harry Kane was upended by Scales’s full-blooded challenge and Jude Bellingham was visibly frustrated by Nathan Collins blocking his path, the Brentford defender playing as a holding midfielder after Hallgrímsson took a leaf from the Jack Charlton school of coaching. Irish centre back stocks were so plentiful in the late 1980s/early 1990s that Charlton redeployed Paul McGrath in midfield.
Everything was going to plan at Wembley until Kane, early in the second half, took out six Irish players with a sumptuous, low pass that prompted Scales to trip Bellingham in the box. The Celtic defender was dismissed on a second yellow card, and 10-man Ireland conceded three goals in a six-minute spell.
“It’s tough,” Hallgrímsson admitted after Ireland drew Bulgaria in a Nations League relegation play-off next March. “All coaches would say the same, losing with this number has been tough. And criticism, you cannot answer that in any way. You need to take it in. Because when you lose 5-0 you’ve definitely done something wrong.
“We’re not hiding. The goals we conceded were very soft and strange but I think again it was down to the mentality and psychology – we lost our heads. We lost a player, and we conceded a goal.
“[It was a] kind of mental breakdown, moments of madness. Concede three goals in six minutes and it’s game over. It’s tough to come back from that. It happened very quickly.”
The brittle confidence of this young Irish group does not appear to be a tactical issue, Hallgrímsson agrees, but one that might be solved by psychoanalysis.
“We had a good talk prior to the England camp, about who has access to things like these, in this area, and, yeah, I myself have used help in this area and it’s really just one piece of the puzzle. That you can add to what we are doing.”
Earlier this year, the FAI employed a psychologist named Sarah Murray to work with the senior women’s squad, so it is an option for Hallgrímsson before his short contract as men’s manager ends after the 2026 World Cup qualification campaign.
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“A professional in this area, or not even a professional, just someone you can share things and stuff ... because psychology is just a bigger and bigger part of elite sports.”
Another glaring problem for Ireland is injuries. Hallgrímsson’s predecessor Stephen Kenny had no luck when it came to fielding his best players, such as Chiedozie Ogbene and Evan Ferguson, at the same time.
The current Irish management hoped to select from a smaller talent pool during the recent Nations League campaign, when they finished third behind England and Greece, but a consistent stream of injuries forced the use of 31 players. Ten withdrawals from the recent camp, and long-term Achilles injuries suffered by Ogbene and Gavin Bazunu, raise concerns about so many Irish players being exposed to the 46-game EFL Championship season and the relentless schedule of a Premier League club.
“I don’t want to put it on English football without giving it a lot of thought,” said Hallgrímsson. “I think it is something everyone is experiencing at this stage, there are a lot of drop-outs, a lot of injuries and serious injuries.
“But I am not going to blame the load of players, that is just how it is ... The number has been affected by injuries but it is different from [managing] Iceland and different from Jamaica; they were more established teams that I took over.
“Looking back, we did not have many injuries with Iceland. They always showed up for the national team. Even if they were injured, they showed up.”
Can Ireland qualify for the 2026 World Cup by using 31 players, and starting 23, across six qualifiers between September and November next year? “I think you will see a more established team, game after game. That is something we need to do. I’ve said it again and again, we need to have connections to know the player next to you will cover, because he has the same thoughts as you do. We need to establish that for sure.”
Hallgrímsson, without prompt, namechecked Andrew Moran, the recently graduated Ireland under-21 captain who is playing regularly for Stoke City, as a potential leader in 2025.
“We have names in our head that we are monitoring. I thought, for example, it was positive the introduction of Andy Moran [at Wembley]. He showed leadership skills, he was not afraid to take the ball in probably the worst moment for a sub, to come in to a game you know is kind of lost. But he showed good characteristics once he came in so that’s a good thing.”
