Hallgrimsson wants more belief after defeat by Greece

Hallgrimsson said it took Greece going ahead for his players to grow into the game

Heimir Hallgrimsson says he wants the Republic of Ireland to show "belief" earlier in games after he suffered a third defeat in four matches as manager with Sunday's 2-0 loss to Greece.

The Irish were outplayed during a difficult first half in Athens with Hallgrimsson's side sparking into life only after falling behind to Tasos Bakasetas' 48th-minute opener.

It was a similar story against Finland on Thursday with the Republic of Ireland behind at the break before a second-half comeback earned a dramatic win in Helsinki.

"It kind of 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 told RTE.

"It was the same against Finland. We then had half-time to talk after the goal. Now it happened very early in the second half.

"I thought after the goal we grew into the game, there was more belief in the passing, playing forward and pressing. We said before the game that we knew there was a wave coming at us and the atmosphere was like that."

The Republic of Ireland have not won back-to-back competitive games since March 2019

Having beaten Finland, the Republic of Ireland were hoping to secure back-to-back competitive wins for the first time since 2019.

But they struggled for large periods in Athens and needed a string of saves from Caoimhin Kelleher to stay in the game.

Kelleher was ultimately at fault when he gifted Petros Mantalos a late second, but Hallgrimsson was buoyed by what he saw in the second half.

"I thought even though they were better first half, we stayed in the game and didn't concede a goal," he added.

"I think the structure helped and we held it with structure, but they were better than us by far in the first half.

"We know we can do better - we saw that in the second half. It's just [needing] to go and grab that belief in each other, in the team and start again with this belief that we had in the second half, and with the intensity, pressing, playing forward and getting the ball in the box etc. That is our entity."

'I have belief in these guys'

Hallgrimsson was also heartened by his substitutes with Jack Taylor coming closest to scoring on his international debut after replacing Evan Ferguson.

Taylor's impact followed Festy Ebosele coming off the bench to set up Robbie Brady's winner in Helsinki.

"Both this game and last game, the guys who came in [off the bench] proved a point that they want to play and be in the team," said Hallgrimsson.

"Again, some positives to take away, maybe a lot of positives to take away from this game, but you never want to lose 2-0."

The Icelander added: "It’s a good team, good players with maybe too little belief to go into games like this. At this level you need to have your chest forward when you play games.

"You have to be on the front foot, and it seems we need moments to get that, to concede in the last two games to start playing as 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."