HEIMIR Hallgrímsson believes that going back to basics has Ireland ready for the World Cup campaign.
The Boys in Green face Luxembourg tomorrow in the final warm-up game ahead of the start of the World Cup qualification campaign in September.
And Hallgrímsson wants to see Ireland build on a decent 2025 to date that has seen them win twice against Bulgaria in March and draw with Senegal on Friday night.
He said: “Basics first before details. I think we are getting the basics pretty good at this stage and the excitement comes with that.
“We feel that we are growing, we can play good teams like Senegal and look comfortable.
“That’s now one step taken and hopefully we can have the same performance against Luxembourg so it shouldn’t be up and down performances.
“We should be consistent in what we are doing, that’s the main thing if you want to qualify.
“You need to get performances every game and play a similar way in every game and develop a style of play.
“This World Cup campaign comes and goes really quickly so we have to have everything spot on once it comes to September. I think it’s good preparation for us.
“It’s always important to win. For every team, it’s always important to win.
“Just to get that winning feeling and make it a habit to do everything correct – to win the matches.
“It is important to win the game even though we would say in a friendly, I would pick performance above winning.
“If we have a good performance, continue to improve in what we are doing, even though we are unlucky and lose the game, I would probably take that more than a win…
“It was the wrong way of saying that, don’t make that a headline!”
While Hallgrímsson looks for consistency, he confirmed that he will make changes to his starting XI.
Stoke City’s Bosun Lawal was called up on Sunday with Jack Taylor and Josh Honohan both carrying slight knocks.
But both took part in training this morning in the Stade de Luxembourg.
Hallgrímsson continued: “The purpose of this camp was to look at new faces and we will make some changes even though we were really happy with the performance.
“Hopefully everyone will have their time to shine, but we’d like to keep some consistency too and build on what we’ve been doing well.
“I think we probably played one of our best games as a team and we don’t want to miss that in the game against Luxembourg.”
