‘Sore loser’ Heimir Hallgrimsson rues Republic of Ireland’s tough start

Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson admitted he was a sore loser after seeing his team slip to a second successive Nations League defeat.

Ireland went down 2-0 to Greece at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday evening three days after losing by the same scoreline to England in Dublin in the first game of the Icelander’s reign.

Asked how difficult a week it had been for him, Hallgrimsson said: “I’m a really sore loser, to be honest, I hate losing.

“In that sense, I am not the happiest man in Ireland at the moment and I probably share that with a lot of fans to be unhappy now.

“My job is to try to turn this around. Nobody told me it was going to be an easy job. I know it is going to take time. I think the first step is positive even though we lost these two games.”

Hallgrimsson now has significantly more clarity about the mission ahead of him and with trips to Finland and Greece to come next month, things are unlikely to get any easier with Ireland and the Finns seemingly already engaged in a relegation battle.

The new head coach warned people not to write off his team, but the fact remains that the Republic have won only two of the 18 games they have played in the competition to date, and their last 10 competitive fixtures have yielded just two victories, both against European minnows Gibraltar.

That is a burden Hallgrimsson admits might weigh heavily on some of his players.

He said: “It feels like the jersey is too heavy for some players. When they put them on, they don’t show the same quality as they do maybe in their clubs, so we need to change that.”

Ireland, who had grown into the game, finished the first half in encouraging fashion and had a fine Chiedozie Ogbene strike correctly ruled out for offside.

However, they were dealt a blow within five minutes of the restart when they stood off and allowed striker Fotis Ioannidis to open the scoring, and their efforts to retrieve something from the game came to nothing when Christos Tzolis added a second three minutes from time, prompting boos on the final whistle.

Hallgrimsson said: “I want to emphasise I feel much better in this game from the England game. The organisation emerging, and it’s working step by step on that.

“I felt first-half, we should have been one up at least. Goals always change games and ours was disallowed, a magnificent strike, and their first goal changes the game completely.”

Greece will head into next month’s fixtures against England and Ireland sitting at the top of the group on goal difference after back-to-back wins, and head coach Ivan Jovanovic is ready for what lies ahead.

He said: “We have practised daily to face better opponents, so this isn’t an exception. Going forward, we can’t choose our opponents.

“We have to play whoever we’re up against. That means playing harder and tougher opponents anyway. That’s in the schedule.”