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IRELAND MANAGER HEIMIR Hallgrimsson admitted his position is under threat following an embarrassing 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat to Armenia in Yerevan.

Ireland’s non-performance means they sit bottom of their group, with just one point from two matches. With four games remaining – two of which are against Portugal – Ireland’s hopes of finishing second in the group and getting a play-off are minimal. Hallgrimsson says Ireland need a miracle to qualify. 

“I’m not concerned about me.”, said Hallgrimsson at the post-game press conference. “When you have a performance like this, the coach’s job is under question, that’s just the name of the game. We probably need a miracle to qualify from now.” 

Asked if he is considering his position, Hallgrimsson said, “I’m always doing it. It’s tough to sit here to explain what happened. Win or lose, you’re always thinking it. You always want to do better. Our focus is to do better.” 

Asked why the Irish performance was so bad, Hallgrimsson said, “It is obviously impossible to answer this question. I can give some thoughts here and it is maybe easy to find excuses but I am not going to do that. I think the travel and the recovery time would have affected this game, but I am not going to pick excuses for that performance.

“Why? I am going to look at it. We need to look inside to see what we could have done better. The staff and the players will do that themselves. We will learn something, there are probably a lot of reasons. But not excuses, forgive me for that.”

He also admitted that Armenia had more energy than his players. 

“They had something to prove, they were hurt from the last match”, he said in reference to their 5-0 loss to Portugal last Saturday. “They had a good energy in them, more energy than us. Second time Ireland have lost here, that is it.

Written by Gavin Cooney and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.