Heimir Hallgrimsson said he was “speechless” after his Republic of Ireland team “gave up” during a second-half collapse that led to a crushing 5-0 Nations League defeat to England at Wembley.
After a goalless first half in which the Irish frustrated England, Harry Kane put the hosts ahead from the penalty spot after Liam Scales received a second yellow card and was sent off for a foul on Jude Bellingham.
Down to 10 men, the Republic of Ireland crumbled as Anthony Gordon and Conor Gallagher quickly extended England’s lead before Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Harwood-Bellis completed a miserable night for Hallgrimsson.
“Well, I’m speechless,” the manager said.
“Six minutes of some kind of madness. Yeah, it was a shock, conceding a penalty, conceding a goal, losing a player. We probably lost our minds at that moment, which led to a second goal and a third goal. And From there one can see, yes, maybe we lost our minds and gave up.”
The former Iceland coach, who replaced Stephen Kenny earlier this year, added: “We have spoken and I said before that we are struggling with confidence, and clearly all confidence was taken away from us in what we did really well in the first half.
“So, yeah, you can’t explain things like this. It just happened, a slap in the face and it was hard to recover from.”
