Sunday’s date in Wembley may well be the leveller that keeps expectations in check, but Ireland fans can still see green shoots of recovery. Nobody will be losing the run of themselves after beating a poor Finnish side for the second time in a month, courtesy this time of an Evan Ferguson header and a brilliant Caoimhin Kelleher penalty save. But in recent years, Ireland made hard work of games like this, toiling against teams of their own level and struggling to put wins on the board.
So the confidence gained from this result and performance shouldn’t be sniffed at as the Boys in Green avoid relegation to League C and instead take their chances in a two-legged March playoff. It’s likely that beating the Finns home and away will be the sum of Ireland’s parts in this Nations League campaign, having already lost twice to Greece and once to England going into Sunday’s final game. But after banking his first home win as Ireland boss, Heimir Hallgrimsson will take the victory and clean sheet while adopting a ‘more to do’ approach, as this was decent but by no means perfect.
Ferguson’s goal just before half-time settled Ireland into a contest they shaded, but couldn’t always control. That was their own doing though, with concentration levels see-sawing throughout as Finland hit the post twice and kept on probing late on. Kelleher was TV’s man of the match, which is an indication that not everything went Ireland’s way.
But with Hallgrimsson missing up to 10 pla.
