Hallgrimsson says Ireland showed they are capable of mixing it with the best

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

Heimir Hallgrímsson reckons Friday night's performance against Senegal shows Ireland are capable of mixing it with the top teams once again.
Kasey McAteer's first-half goal set the Boys in Green on course for a third consecutive win, but Crystal Palace attacker Ismaila Sarr came off the bench to score a late equaliser.
With World Cup qualifiers coming up later this year against Portugal, Hungary and Armenia, Hallgrímsson believes Ireland are on the right path.
'I think the big thing from this game is we can play top teams,' he said.
'I think they (Senegal) are number 19 on the FIFA rankings, they haven't lost in 23 games in a row, and we are disappointed not to win the game tonight, and we at times made them look like an average team on the pitch.
'I am mostly happy with how we dealt with their in-possession game, we limited their chances, and when we play good teams that's a priority.'
Hallgrímsson had plenty of praise for goalscorer McAteer, who marked his first Irish start with his first senior international goal.
'He had a really good performance today,' said the head coach. 'You always put out some questions when you play games like this and you get answers, that's the aim, to get answers.
'Some are good, some are bad, but it's always good to have answers.
'Him coming in and showing a lot of confidence, forward momentum, he took players on and got the goal as a reward. So I'm really happy for him.
'He has gotten a run for Leicester at the end of the season so you have seen his progress for his club and he has brought that into the national team.
'It was a really good first start for him. He is a confident player on the ball, has speed and technique. He is a clever footballer, he has a good football brain.'
Ryan Manning's performance also earned the Southampton wide-man some post-match plaudits.
'Attacking, Ryan is a clever player, a cheeky player. We rotated on the left side so Robbie (Brady) played more like a winger in possession, and Ryan was kind of in a 10 role there,' he said.
'We've done that in the past two or three games, and we are trying to improve that as an option for us.'
He added: 'The game became loose at the end when we did all our substitutions. In a competitive game we probably wouldn't have done so many substitutions, but we wanted to see players come in and give them a chance to shine.
'I'm happy with the performance, there are a lot of positive things we can take from this. Maybe the negative thing is we are conceding goals from crosses too often.
'It was not tactical, there were enough bodies in the box, but we need to be a little more brave.'