Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson has encouraged his players to be excited by the progress they have made as they prepare for a new World Cup qualifying campaign.
Ireland will bring down the curtain on this season’s fixtures with a friendly in Luxembourg on Tuesday evening knowing that when they next meet up in September, it will be the hard currency of qualification points which will be at stake against Hungary and Armenia.
They go into the game having won four and drawn one of the nine matches they have played to date under Hallgrimsson and the Icelander, who helped guide his native country to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016 courtesy of a famous last-16 win over England, believes they have established momentum.
Asked about replicating that excitement with Ireland, he said: “I think it comes automatically. It comes because we are growing as a unit.
“It comes because we are saying the same thing over and over again – probably boring for the players to listen to because we are saying the same thing over and over – and I have said before, basics first before details. Basics before details.
“The excitement comes from that. We can feel that we are growing every time we play, like how comfortable we were against Senegal.
“That’s one step taken. We can have the same against Luxembourg, so it shouldn’t be up and down performances, it should be consistent performance. That is what we need.”
Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Senegal, who are ranked 41 places above Ireland by FIFA, in Dublin was a creditable result, but Hallgrimsson and his players would dearly love to go into the competitive games with another victory under their belts.
However, they know from painful experience that Luxembourg are no longer the push-over
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