Heimir Hallgrimsson urges players to 'stick chests forward'

Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson has challenged his players to puff out their chests and begin to perform with the kind of belief that befits their status as top international players.

After a stirring but ultimately fruitless second-half display against Greece in Piraeus, Hallgrimsson - not for the first time - earmarked what he sees as low levels of confidence amongst his squad and stressed that, until that issue is addressed, it may be difficult for this Ireland group to turn their prolonged poor run of results around.

"This is a good team with good players," the Icelander told RTÉ Sport after the 2-0 Nations League defeat to the Greeks.

"I'm repeating myself but maybe we have too little belief going into games like this. At this level, you need to have your chest forward when you play games, you need to be on the front foot.

"It seems we need moments to get that - the last two games [we needed] to concede to start playing like we know we can. There is belief in this team for sure, I have belief in these guys and I hope that people have seen that this team can be really, really good on their day."

As was the case in Thursday night's come-from-behind victory in Finland, Ireland needed the jolt of an opposition goal to prompt them into playing their better football. Their new manager insists they need to turn a corner in a way that will see them start games on the front foot - rather than waiting until all appears lost.

"It feels like once we concede a goal, the pressure is kind of gone so we start to have more belief in what we are doing," Hallgrimsson said.

"It was the same against Finland. We had half-time to talk after the goal [against Finland], here it happened very early in the second half.

"After the goal we