Heimir Hallgrimsson once had England's biggest names spitting feathers and he wants to repeat the trick
The new Ireland manager was joint-Iceland boss when they knocked England out of Euro 2016 in the Last 16
Heimir Hallgrimsson's finest moment in football had some of England’s biggest names spitting feathers.
Alan Shearer had just watched Iceland eliminate the Three Lions from Euro 2016 and described the 2-1 defeat as the worst England performance he had ever seen.
"We were out-fought, out-thought, out-battled and totally hopeless for 90 minutes,” said the former captain and striker at the time.
READ MORE: Seamus Coleman has his say on expected hostile reception for Declan Rice and Jack Grealish
READ MORE: Heimir Hallgrimsson wants cool heads going into Ireland v England clash
As the teams walked out in Nice for that ‘Last 16’ clash, Chris Waddle declared on radio that “England are playing a Championship side tonight, let’s be realistic”.
Some 90 minutes later, the former midfielder was not only swallowing his words but “lost for words”, before adding, “this is the worst result I've ever known."
Icelandic TV commentator Gudmundur Benediktsson went viral with his full-time reaction to the shock win and bellowed: "Never wake me from this amazing dream!.
And for Hallgrimsson, who was the joint Iceland manager with Lars Largerback, it was quite simply the greatest night of his professional life.
About 10% of the entire Icelandic population was in France for that tournament and those fans became famous for their ‘thunderclap’ in the stands.
There won’t be any thunder in Dublin today but Hallgrimsson is still hoping that lightning strikes twice as he faces England again, but now as the Ireland manager.
Yesterday, the 57-year-old was more fireman than firestarter as he tried to downplay the significance of this fixture, stressing the need for cool heads on the pitch.
The historical context of the Ireland-England rivalry has been explained at length to him, but he sought to play down the hype at his pre-match press conference.
In fact, he was giving little or nothing away and especially so on his team selection.
“It’s basically none of your business when I talk to the players and show them the line-up,” he said, in response to the very first question of the pre-match briefing.
Hallgrimsson wasn’t as snippy as that might sound, but he was certainly more upbeat when answering an English reporter’s question on Iceland’s famous win.
“I hope we’ll have the same result, of course,” he said, sitting alongside Ireland captain Seamus Coleman at Aviva Stadium.
“We were just speaking in the car on the way in, that night was special. Everything we did that night succeeded.
“Whether it was tactical, taking our chances, defending our goal, nothing England tried that night succeeded. So it was just one of those days.
“Hopefully it will come again today. But we know, even if we have our best game, it still isn't sure it will lead into a victory against a good team like England.
“We need to make sure we have the best game we can and see what that gives us.”
Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins pulled out of England’s squad this week, but the Euro 2024 finalists still boast star quality.
Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, both former Ireland players across various levels, will feature and Hallgrimsson admits this England is a different beast to the side he beat.
“It's a totally different team,” continued the new Ireland boss.
“The individual quality, the technical skills, the speed of this team is much higher than the one we played.
“Also, they are coming off a good tournament and I would say the biggest difference is they have stayed together for two months now, and we have three days to prepare.
“That is going to be challenging as their routine is so drilled, whether it's on the pitch or off the pitch.
“Coming from a good U21 campaign as well, they come here on a high and their players are playing Champions League day in, day out.
“They are good individuals for sure that we are facing.”
Back in 2016, and trying to come to terms with England’s shock defeat to Hallgrimsson’s Iceland, former England star Waddle made an interesting observation.
"I would never pay to watch Iceland, but they've got great camaraderie,” he said.
When the FAI appointed Hallgrimsson in July, a collective ‘who?’ went up from pretty much everyone associated with, or just interested in, Irish football.
We are unlikely to see Hallgrimsson’s hallmark on the team today - not after just five days working with the players.
But over the course of this campaign, the Icelander is keen to tap into the more traditional Irish values and the ‘great camaraderie’ Waddle spoke of will be up there.
There will be a focus, too, on being more compact and harder to beat, and of players having a firm understanding of their roles. Back to basics, as such.
Yesterday, Hallgrimsson was asked what - if anything - in his approach might excite Ireland fans at Aviva Stadium today - and beyond.
“If you play the game in your head, probably England will have more possession than us, so defensively we need to be really solid,” he said.
“We have to take the chances that we get, whenever we have the chance to play attacking football, go higher up the pitch.
“I hope it's going to be a mix of both, but England will have more ball possession than us and if we are defending 60 per cent of the time, then we need to be prepared.
“Hopefully we will score some goals. Whether we will have more possession than them is irrelevant if we score goals from our chances."
Hallgrimsson is the Ireland manager because of his work up to now of trying to get the best return out of other smaller nations.
Since 2004, Ireland has dropped 46 places in the FIFA world rankings and only Liechtenstein, San Marino & Latvia have fallen further.
So this is modern Ireland. The joy of old Ireland-England clashes at Stuttgart 88 and Italia 90 is consigned to ‘Reeling In The Years’.
Hallgrimsson is starting from a low base and has already pointed to Tuesday’s game against Greece as being arguably more important than today.
But were he to cast another spell over England, the fans would think he’s magic.
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