‘I think Bulgaria is an okay draw’ – Heimir Hallgrímsson reacts to Ireland’s playoff opponents

The Republic of Ireland will play Bulgaria in the Nations League promotion/relegation playoffs in March.
The two-legged meeting sees Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team travel to Plovdiv for the first leg on Thursday, March 20th with the second leg in Dublin on Sunday, March 23rd.
If Ireland lose to Bulgaria, they are relegated to League C for 2026. Hallgrímsson, who was present at the draw at Uefa headquarters in Switzerland, was pleased to avoid Slovakia and Armenia after recent losses to both nations.
“I think Bulgaria is an okay draw,” he said. “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 5-0 in Belfast 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.”
The Icelander disagrees with the theory that Ireland could do with a stint in League C despite recent home and away defeats, to England and Greece when they conceded 11 goals and scored zero.
“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.
“I think it’s always an advantage [to play the second leg at home],” he added. “It’s a tricky place to go to, Bulgaria. Like I said, the thing is, if you look at their results, it’s a lot of low-scoring games. Clean sheets are their strength. They are going to be a tricky thing, to break them down for sure.”
The Uefa playoffs in March ensure that Ireland will be drawn in a four-team World Cup qualification group on December 13th. This allows them to avoid playing qualifiers in June, when the majority of Hallgrímsson’s squad are lacking match fitness as the Championship ends in early May. The FAI will fill this international window with a training camp and two friendlies.
Bulgaria are ranked 84th in the world, 21 places below Ireland. Ilian Iliev’s side struggled during this year’s Nations League C campaign, eventually finishing second behind Northern Ireland with two wins, three draws and that 5-0 defeat at Windsor Park last month.
This came after Bulgaria beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in September with a goal from Kiril Despodov.
Iliev double jobs as the national manager and head coach of club side Cherno More Varna that currently sit third in the Bulgarian First League.
Ireland has a fascinating history with Bulgaria. A landmark result in Irish football history was the 2-0 win at Lansdowne Road in 1987 when goals by Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran put Jack Charlton’s men on course to qualify for their first major tournament, the European Championships in Germany.
Bulgarian football has rapidly declined, more so than Ireland, since Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov led them to a World Cup semi-final at USA ‘94.
Currently, they have no star turns at the major European clubs, although Despodov is a dangerous winger for Greek side POAK and Ilia Gruev was a regular in the Leeds United midfield until his recent knee injury.
In more recent times, the countries played out four draws in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and 2020 Nations League.