Match view from Heimir Hallgrimsson's home country, Iceland

Let's go back now to tonight's World Cup playoff.

Ireland's manager, Hamer Halgrimson, first became widely known during Euro 2016,

when as co-manager, he guided Iceland to the quarter-finals.

Along the way, they managed to beat England.

Johan Australston is a sports reporter with RUV,

that Iceland's national broadcaster,

and he's been telling me about that country's interest in tonight's match.

Yeah, definitely. People are very interested for it.

Icelandic media has been flooded with news about Hamer in the match itself,

whether it's the bars in Prague, buying endless booze,

fans selling their cars to fly over to Prague,

or he might don't be giving his latest coat on Hamer.

It's a huge interest.

All right, you're clearly well clued into the Irish setup yourself.

Does Hamer Halgrimson, does he still have a kind of hero status in Iceland

because of 2016 and all of the success back then?

Definitely. He's still our man.

We'll never forget those years, and who knows if we'll ever be back again, anyway.

So, I mean, we won't be there, obviously, this time around.

So we're hoping that Hamer can get you guys there.

He is our man.

I spoke with him recently, and he's feeling the same kind of movement within Irish,

as he felt in his time with Iceland before 2016 and 2018.

He feels the momentum is swinging, and the population now that you guys are

fully behind the boys in green.

And he's always said that he has to win people over,

as he's not a big name in World Football, so he's definitely still our guy.

And from what he was saying to you, did he find that,

and did he find the experience in general difficult to begin with?

Yes, I have to say. I mean, he's an honest guy, and he's always said that

he tries to stay away from the media and the talk, but he said it's starting a little,

but he said he's an honest guy, he keeps his door open,

he just lays it out exactly as it is, and he just tries to

put in the work, basically, and I think that's what he has been able to do,

and he factored that to be able to be turning around kind of the momentum

and a difficult course in Ireland. He talked about that.

Going back to the match tonight, do you think Ireland can win?

Definitely, definitely. We're going to be watching.

There's actually a blizzard going on right now in Iceland.

You know, it's a blizzard when we call it the blizzard.

It really is a blizzard.

Yes, exactly.

So we're expecting huge viewership numbers here, and I mean,

if you can get past the checks, although they're strong on home turf,

we believe we can bring the boys to green and a little bit of Iceland,

you know, back to the World Cup, and we fully believe that if you can get

you back to Lansdown Road, you'll bring it home there.

Good to know that I'll be watching in Iceland.

That was Johan Oost-Ralston speaking to me a little earlier.