Ireland have been handed a sickening 2-0 defeat in Athens this evening after an injury-time goal for Greece killed what was an extremely promising second half from Heimir Hallgrímsson's men.
While the opening half of football saw both sides enjoy chances, it was Greece who were the more fruitful of the two, with several brilliant Caoimhin Kelleher saves the only reason Ireland headed down the tunnel level with the hosts.
Unfortunately for Ireland, even Kelleher couldn't save them when Greece's skipper Bakasetas fired a long-range shot into the back of the net in the 47th minute.
Despite Ireland responding to the goal commendably, an injury-time mistake from first-half hero Caoimhin Kelleher undone much of their hard work, with Greece's Petros Mantalos condemning Ireland to defeat with the home side's second goal of the night.
RES: 🇬🇷 2-0 🇮🇪
Loose pass from Caoimhin Kelleher allows Mantalos to make it 2-0 #COYBIG #GREIRL #NationsLeague
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📻 Listen: @GameOn2FM pic.twitter.com/Vq2wb7Wg1i— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 13, 2024
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Subtitle
Speaking after tonight's loss, Heimir Hallgrímsson remained hopeful about the future but did identify a strange Irish trait that seems to be raring it's head time and time again.
Hallgrímsson's comments came after Ireland once again played their best football in the aftermath of conceding a goal.
It kind of feels like once we concede a goal, the pressure is kind of gone, so we we start to have more belief in what we are doing, it was the same against Finland.
I thought after the goal we grew into the game, it was more belief in everything that we were doing passing, playing forward, pressing.
It's a good team, it's good players. Maybe too little belief to go into games like this. At this level need to have your chest forward when you play games, you need to be on the front foot. It seems we need a moment to get that, normally to concede in the last two games (has been that moment) to start playing as we know we can. But there is belief in this team for sure, and I have belief in these guys and I hope that people have seen that this team can be really, really good on the day.
🇬🇷 2-0 🇮🇪
Ireland manager on an improved second-half showing against Greece and his steadfast belief in the squad, adding that the team can be "really, really good on their day" #COYBIG #GREIRL #NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/lpk0qKTEZW— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 13, 2024
In a similar fashion to this evening, Thursday's clash saw Finland end a cagey opening quarter with their first goal. However, Hallgrímsson's men responded to the goal impeccably, taking control of the fixture and earning both an equaliser and injury-time winner.
While tonight that injury-time goal went against Ireland, there was little doubt that the Boys in Green played their best football in the aftermath of Bakasetas' goal, generally controlling the play and creating several chances that they simply couldn't convert.
While Hallgrímsson's side still have a lot of work to do, should he be able to restore that confidence and belief to his side there's little reason they couldn't push on from what was a relatively positive performance on Sunday evening.
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