Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson says his side need to play to their optimum from the start of Tuesday’s World Cup Group F qualifier against Armenia in Yerevan.
The Irish recovered from conceding two goals inside the opening 15 minutes of their opening qualifying game against Hungary on Saturday to salvage a 2-2 draw.
In eight of Hallgrimsson’s nine competitive games in charge, the Republic have conceded the opening goal and on four occasions now – against Hungary, England, Finland and Bulgaria – have fallen behind inside the opening 20 minutes.
Tuesday’s encounter is set to be played in energy-sapping temperatures in excess of 30C.
“Obviously, they will have more power in the beginning, I would guess, with an extra day to recover [rather than travelling],” said Hallgrimsson at his pre-match media conference.
“We’ve conceded early goals in three games of late and they probably fancy their chances in the beginning, so we need to be ready from kick-off.”
Barnabas Varga and Roland Sallai scored to put Hungary two ahead at Aviva Stadium at the weekend but Evan Ferguson’s strike and, after Sallai had been sent off, Adam Idah’s equaliser, rescued a point.
“It was a really good effort, really good character – that’s what we take from the last game into this one,” the Republic boss told reporters.
“It’s kind of what you decide to take from it. Is the glass half-empty or is the glass half-full?
“We will obviously address some of the things that we didn’t do well, but from the 30th minute I think we more or less controlled the game. If we can keep on playing like we did from minute 30, I would be happy.”