Heimir Hallgrimsson has urged referee Glenn Nyberg not to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to do his job for him as the Republic of Ireland target a famous victory over Portugal.
The Swedish official will be the man in the middle when Hallgrimsson’s Ireland welcome the 40-year-old superstar and his team-mates to the Aviva Stadium on Thursday in a game which could decide the hosts’ World Cup qualifying Group F fate.
When the sides met in Lisbon last month, a frustrated Ronaldo was in constant dialogue with Slovakian match official Ivan Kruzliak, who awarded a penalty which the former Manchester United forward saw saved by Caoimhin Kelleher, and the Icelander does not want a repeat in Dublin.
The Ireland head coach said: “Obviously it’s up to the referee if he (Ronaldo) takes part in a play, but the thing in Portugal, he was not only controlling the referee, he was controlling the whole stadium, so all the fans supported his actions and the referee just kind of played along.
“I hope it will be the vice-versa now we are in the Aviva. Obviously a player shouldn’t be refereeing, it should be the officials doing the refereeing.
“I hope the people here will see that and recognise that if they want to affect the game, they shouldn’t at least affect the referee.”
Ireland defended manfully at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and looked to have secured a point after Kelleher kept out Ronaldo’s spot-kick, only for Ruben Neves to score a stoppage-time header.
Portugal would secure top spot and a trip to next summer’s finals with a game to spare with victory at the Aviva, a result which would have repercussions for Ireland if Hungary have won in Armenia earlier in the day.
They trail the Hungarians – who they face in Budapest on Sunday – by a point heading into the final two rounds of fixtures and may need at least a point from the Portuguese to keep the race for second place alive.
That will take a monumental effort for a side sitting 62nd in FIFA’s latest world rankings, 57 places behind the visitors.
Hallgrimsson said: “We cannot play an open game against a good attacking – especially transitionally – team like Portugal. We need to be clever in our approach. We need to be clever and cynical in how we play.”
Ireland last made it to the finals of a major tournament in 2016 and the current generation of players have endured some tough nights during the intervening years, although defender Dara O’Shea is confident they have learned from those difficult times.
O’Shea said: “Football is football and sometimes things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to. You need to have luck on your side in football sometimes.
“We’ve had good performances, but football is a tough game. You either win or learn and we’ve done a lot of learning. I hope the lessons we’ve learned have put us in a better place.”
PA
