Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson says England’s appointment of Thomas Tuchel with the mission of winning the World Cup shows the difference between the two teams.
Hallgrimsson brings his side to Wembley to conclude their Nations League group stage on Sunday, knowing they are guaranteed to finish third in League B Group 2 and therefore set for a two-legged play-off against a second-placed team from League C in March.
They will then begin their quest to qualify for a first World Cup since 2002 in the summer.
Next stop: London ✈️ pic.twitter.com/Uoc48cT1ay
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) November 16, 2024
Hallgrimsson says while just getting to the 2026 tournament will be an achievement for Ireland, Sunday’s opponents have hired a manager with the aim of winning it.
“We really, really want to qualify for the World Cup finals,” he said.
“They are hiring a new manager and want to win the World Cup, that is the difference in where we are at the moment.”
England have to win the Wembley showdown to top the group and return to League A and Hallgrimsson says all the pressure is on interim boss Lee Carsley’s side.
“We go to this game like all games to try and win it, whatever way we use,” the Icelander added. “But it is of course a little bit of a relief to know we are not playing for positions.
“The pressure is on England, they need to win to finish top of the group. They don’t belong in Group B so of course they would like to play in Group A as one of the top international teams of the world and Europe.
“They should be playing in Group A.
“We know what kind of a threat England gives us and if we are not ready for the first minute they will punish us.
“It happened in Dublin. It is a team that if we give them a chance they will probably take it, such an attacking quality in that team.
“But they have their weaknesses as well so we will try and exploit that.”
Ireland have never won at Wembley and have only ever beaten England on their own turf once, at Goodison Park back in 1949.
But Burnley midfielder Josh Cullen does not think a victory would be extra special.
“It would mean a lot, that goes without saying, but I don’t think it would mean anymore than the Finland game the other night,” he said.
“Every time we play for our country we want to win.
“It would be great to win tomorrow night, but we will approach it the same as the other games.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here