Heimir Hallgrimsson: Win all that matters as Republic of Ireland face Armenia

By Damian Spellman, PA

Heimir Hallgrimsson has admitted he would take a “s****y” performance if the Republic of Ireland beat Armenia to keep alive their World Cup qualification hopes.

Ireland face Yegishe Melikyan’s side at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, knowing anything other than victory would effectively end their Group F campaign with two games still to play.

Hallgrimsson’s men turned in an impressive rearguard display in Portugal on Saturday – helped by Caoimhín Kelleher saving Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty – only to be felled at the death by Ruben Neves’ header, but the Icelander does not care how well they play against the Armenians as long as they get what they need.

He said: “The only thing that matters tomorrow is the end result. However we do it, I would take playing a s****y game and winning 1-0.

“Yeah, this is a result game, 100 per cent.”

Hallgrimsson and his players know any margin for error has now gone after following up their 2-2 home draw with Hungary with defeats in Armenia and Portugal.

However, the 58-year-old remains confident they can yet dig themselves out of a hole to finish second behind the Portuguese and earn a play-off berth.

He said: “I’ve always been honest with you, I believe in this team. I think this team has everything to qualify for the World Cup.

“We are not maybe the favourites in the group at the moment, but a win tomorrow would change that and I believe that we are going to do that.”

Few within the Ireland camp will need reminding of last month’s trip to Yerevan, which ended in a 2-1 defeat by a side currently ranked 103rd in the world by FIFA, some 42 places below the Republic.

Hallgrimsson said: “If you have seen the last game from Armenia where they went to Hungary, we know that this is a good team and Hungary was lucky to go away with a win.

“Even at 1-0, Armenia had lots of good opportunities to punish and it’s just a good team, so never, ever anyone here underestimate Armenia.”

If Ireland are to prosper in Dublin – without suspended midfielder Josh Cullen – they could do with a first clean sheet of the campaign, something skipper Nathan Collins and his colleagues held on to for 91 minutes in Portugal before Neves struck.

Recent results have brought criticism but Collins insists he does not feel the weight of a shirt he wears with such pride.

He said: “Listen, playing for Ireland is one of the biggest honours and it’s not easy at all because every kid growing up wants to play for Ireland.

“Internationally I feel like it’s a bit of a different game compared to club football because there’s so much more time to prepare for a game and there are big gaps in between and there’s a lot of tactical [things] going on, where games at club football come thick and fast so it’s a different game.

“The pressure to play for Ireland is a privilege. The pressure of putting that green jersey on is something you always wanted and it’s something I’ll never take for granted.”