HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON reckons Bulgaria is an ‘OK’ draw for Ireland.
Ireland have been paired with the east Europeans in the Nations League relegation/promotion play-off.
In March, Ireland will be away first with a return game at the Aviva Stadium with the winner competing in League B and the loser in League C.
The other options for Ireland were Armenia, Kosovo and Slovakia.
And Hallgrímsson said: “I think Bulgaria is an OK draw. It’s not my favourite, it’s not the worst.
“Slovakia was the highest FIFA-ranked team and everyone would like to avoid them. Yeah it’s probably going to be an equal game like most of these set-ups.
“They were in a group with Northern Ireland and if I remember correctly they lost 5-1 in Belfast [it was 5-0] but that is kind of an outlier in all the results.
“They had four clean sheets in that group and somebody had told me Ireland had them in the group in 2020 and it was two draws. You would expect a low scoring game when you look at the goals and statistics.
“That is going to be a tricky thing, to break them down for sure.
“It’s good to have a home advantage in the second game. It’s a tricky place to go to, Bulgaria.”
Ireland have been in League B in every Nations League campaign to date. Asked if it was important to stay there, Hallgrímsson said: “Well it’s different opinions as to how important it is to be in League B, some say it’s even better to be in Group C to have more chances of winning games.
“My opinion is that you should always play the stronger team and try to improve that way. That’s my opinion and I think it’s important that if we want to try to qualify for finals it’s always better to play better teams than not.”
Hallgrímsson will hope that his players will be able to put their 5-0 loss to England behind them by the time the sides meet in March.
He said: ”If you look at our games, this season half is an outlier in our performance so hopefully time will heal these wounds.
“Now, it’s a little bit of a quieter time for me and a good time to look back and reflect and just gather every key note that I’ve put in my diary and go through it and gather my thoughts.”
Having used 31 players in six games, Hallgrímsson expects to have a more settled side in 2025.
He said: “I needed contact time with the group, with the squad, to try to find the players who will fit how we want things to be done. So the number of players is probably according to what I expected in the beginning.
“Obviously always it’s better to do a bigger camp with the players at the beginning and select from there but this was how it was.
“I think we used it wisely. We didn’t do a lot of changes but there was always some changes so there a little stability as well. This is how go forward.
“My contact time with the players is three weeks, three weeks and two days or something, so it’s not much. As a coach what you can do in three weeks.
“It’s good it was September, October, November. It was a continuity in what we were saying and our message was pretty clear in my opinion and the players now know what we expect, and they probably know more why we select in the future these players but not these players.”
And he reckons any players on the move in the January transfer window will not be primarily motivated by their national-team fortunes.
He said: “If it’s a player that’s not playing, I think he will do that regardless of what his national team coach has to say.
“All players like to play and if they are not getting minutes, they will try with their agents to get playing time somewhere else.
“Of course as a national team coach, you want your players to be playing regularly and at the highest level possible.”
