Republic of Ireland 'sloppy and boring' in Luxembourg draw

BBC News

a day ago

Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson bemoaned his side's "sloppy" and "boring" performance in their 0-0 friendly draw with Luxembourg.Despite twice hitting the woodwork, it was a laboured performance from the Boys in Green, who lacked the intensity that was evident against Senegal in Dublin on Friday.Hallgrimsson was disappointed with their showing against a side ranked 31 places below them by Fifa in their last game before the start of World Cup qualifying in September."Let's be honest, we're not happy with this performance," the Icelander told RTE."It is good to keep a clean sheet, it's the first one since I have come in, but we all felt the first half we were sloppy and the game was boring."All the good things we did against Senegal were missing, all the quick movements, the press and the ball speed. The effort was so much less than against Senegal."
'We must play the same way against everyone'
Having endured a difficult start to his reign - which included a resounding 5-0 Nations League loss to England at Wembley - Hallgrimsson has overseen steady progress in 2025. Two wins against Bulgaria in the Nations League play-off and a credible friendly draw against Senegal helped lift their spirits going into Tuesday's game. But while the goalless draw against Luxembourg stretches their unbeaten run to four games, Hallgrimsson called for improvement before September's qualifiers against Hungary and Armenia. "We changed in the second half, more tempo and won more duals but not good enough," he added."We go in September and play the higher ranked team first and then the lower ranked team away so this is something we can learn from, we must play the same way against everyone, whether an end of season friendly or a group stage game."This game will just teach us a lesson; it is understandable that players will think we have a break after a long time and our players have played a lot of matches."