Republic of Ireland vs Greece predictions: No Greek gifts for Hallgrimsson
- Ireland have won just one of their last seven home games
- Greece triumphed 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium in October 2023
- Recommended bet: Greece to win
New Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson lost his first game in charge against England and will demand an improved performance against Greece on Tuesday.
The Boys in Green were poor against the Three Lions, failing to consistently threaten as goals from Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, both of whom previously represented Ireland at either youth or senior level, gave visiting interim boss Lee Carsley, who himself is Birmingham-born but represented the Republic on 40 occasions.
Greece also had a new man at the helm for the first time on Saturday and Ivan Jovanovic made a successful start to his reign, overseeing a 3-0 win over Finland in the day's other Nations League Group B2 fixture.
To Piratiko have won in Dublin as recently as October 2023 and Hallgrimsson is unlikely to have had the requisite time to sufficiently improve their attacking play ahead of this game at the Aviva Stadium.
Team news
Republic captain Seamus Coleman will likely miss out after suffering a foot injury against England. Everton colleague Jake O'Brien, who replaced him against England, is expected to come into the team should Hallgrimsson stick with a back three.
Evan Ferguson made his first appearance since March on Saturday, but his lack of fitness means he is again likely to feature from the bench.
Greece boss Jovanovic selected Fotis Ioannidis ahead of Vangelis Pavlidis and the forward, who played under the boss at Panathinaikos, repaid the faith by scoring twice against Finland.
Ioannidis is expected to retain his place, while despite his lack of regular action at club level, Odysseas Vlachodimos should feature in goal.
The stats
Ireland have never beaten Greece in five meetings, losing four times, with their sole draw coming in a 0-0 in Athens in 2002.
The duo most recently met in Euro 2024 qualifying, the Ethniki winning 2-1 in Athens before triumphing 2-0 in Dublin.
Ireland have only beaten Armenia, Malta, Latvia, Gibraltar (twice) and Hungary in the 19 games since their 3-0 triumph over Scotland in June 2022.
Greece's October 2023 win in Dublin was just one of three in their last 10 away matches. However, Ireland have won just one of their previous seven home games.
Prediction
There was little surprise that Hallgrimsson set his team up to defend against England and he is likely to use his previous experience with Iceland as a blueprint to build a well-organised side capable of grabbing goals on the break and from set-pieces.
However, the 57-year-old looks to have his work cut out, with his team's lack of confidence on the ball against England inevitably forcing them back towards their 18-yard box.
Greece have handy players and, after only missing out on the Euros via a penalty shootout defeat to Georgia, they were excellent against Finland.
After home and away wins against the Irish last year, it is tough to look past the visitors not taking all three points on Tuesday.
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