5 key talking points as the Republic of Ireland prepare to visit Portugal

The Republic of Ireland face Portugal on Saturday evening with their World Cup qualification hopes already hanging by a thread.

Last month’s defeat in Armenia, which followed a 2-2 home draw with Hungary, left Heimir Hallgrimsson’s men facing an uphill battle to make it out of Group F.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at some of the talking points surrounding an intensely difficult game at Lisbon’s Jose Alvalade Stadium.

They think it’s Hall over?

Icelander Hallgrimsson is 12 games into his reign as Ireland manager, but his current deal runs only as long as his team’s involvement in the current campaign. He has put talks over an extension on hold to concentrate on the qualifiers, but his future will be dictated largely by how the next four fixtures unfold with only four of his 10 competitive matches to date having resulted in victory and five in defeat.

Back to back to basics

Part of Hallgrimsson’s mission when he picked up the reins released by Stephen Kenny was to revert to type and, like predecessors Giovanni Trapattoni, Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy, make Ireland difficult to beat. They were anything but in their opening two qualifiers, going down 2-0 at home to the Hungarians before clawing their way back to draw, and then suffering the same fate in Yerevan, where they were ultimately unable to dig themselves out of the mire for a second time despite Evan Ferguson’s goal. That must change and change quickly.

Evan or Troy

At the other end of the pitch, Ferguson, who scored in both September games to mark his return to form at Roma on loan from Brighton, and AZ Alkmaar’s Troy Parrott, who has 10 goals to his name already this season, provide cause for cautious optimism. However, both men reported for duty working their way back from injury, Ferguson with an ankle problem and Parrott an issue with his knee which had sidelined him for more than six weeks before a 20-minute run-out at the weekend. Whether either has 90 minutes in him – the former insists he is fully fit – remains to be seen.

2015 and all that

If the odds are heavily stacked against them in Lisbon, Hallgrimsson and his players will at least travel buoyed by history. On October 8, 2015, Martin O’Neill’s men snatched a famous 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying victory over world champions Germany in Dublin thanks to Shane Long’s piledriver. A repeat against the side currently ranked fifth in the world by FIFA would represent a similar shock, but would also rekindle their qualification hopes.

Ron to the rescue

Ireland were within a minute of beating Portugal the last time the nations met in a competitive fixture on the Iberian Peninsula. John Egan’s first-half header looked to have wrapped up three priceless World Cup qualifying points at the Estadio Algarve in September 2021 when Cristiano Ronaldo, who had earlier seen his penalty saved by Gavin Bazunu, came to the rescue with two bullet headers at the death to snatch victory.