FOOTBALL DAILY: Hallgrimsson announces squad, Liverpool progress while Newcastle & Spurs crash out, Gary Neville on United & Europa League action
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Off the Ball Rugby. Checkers rock and roll, and for better or worse, the sport likes its entertainment now, and Michael Checker does that very well. Join in the obsession. Subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join. Off the Balls Football Daily. Hello and welcome along to Thursday's Football Daily. I'm Phil Egan. Coming up today, Heimir Halgrimson signs a new contract on the day he named his squad for next week's huge World Cup play-off against the Czech Republic. We get the latest from Abbottstown with a return of a few old faces and a new one. Liverpool book their spot on the last day of the Champions League and we look at tonight's action in the Europa League with Villa and Forest looking to secure a place in the quarter-finals.
But first, Ireland boss Heimir Halgrimson has signed the new contract which will keep him in the role until the end of the Euro 2028 campaign. It was confirmed by the man himself at his press conference for the squad announcement ahead of next week's World Cup playoff clash with the Czech Republic and Prague. Halgrimson said the decision was made to ensure full focus remains on the upcoming games and to secure the long-term future of the team. Yes, yeah. So what we did this morning was I extended my contract until after the Euros. So I'm happy to be here. I like the project. I said I wanted to do that after the qualifications or after the tournament. But it was a big pressure from the association for me to sign before these play-off matches.
And I said again, I don't want to be where I'm not wanted.
What updates did Heimir Hallgrimsson provide for the Republic of Ireland squad?
So I really felt that I was wanted. So we decided to extend the contract until after the Euros. Hallgrimson named a 25-man squad for the playoff clash away to the Czech Republic in seven days. Sammy Smodeks, Alan Brown and Robbie Brady all return. Adam Eade has been past fit. James Abankwa, Boston Lowell and goalkeeper Josh Keighley are also in the squad along with Seamus Coleman and John Egan. QPR midfielder Harvey Vale has been included for the first time after his FIFA clearance came through earlier this month. Hallgrimson says he's been watching the former England under-19s captain for a while. Talked to him over a year ago and he expressed the desire to play for Ireland at that time. He was injured at that time.
So we have been watching him since then and I think it's a perfect time to bring him in. to this squad now we see him as a potentially future player for us good player good person hard working guy creator of chances scoring goals and you'll be able to listen live on Off The Ball to that World Cup playoff between the Czech Republic and Ireland in Prague next Thursday it'll be on Newstalk and the Goal Out app The difference is from before we are bringing in 25 players. Two reasons, one is that Liam Scales is suspended for our first leg and he will be with us from start and then we have some players coming back from injuries and we want to be more safe than sorry having 25 players from day one. There are a few players there, yes, that have also a few minutes of game time for many reasons.
Sheamus, Chio, Bossom, Aramida, Robbie Brady are the ones that haven't been playing much recently, but all of them are fit at the moment. Good numbers, they've been training good, so looking forward to meeting them all up. Liverpool boss Arne Slott felt they put in one of their best displays of the season to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League last night. Liverpool beat Galatasaray 4-0 at Anfield to advance 4-1 on aggregate. Goals from Dominic Savaslai, Hugo Eketike, Ryan Gravenberg and Mohamed Salah made it a comfortable night for the six-time European champions. We showed tonight that we can still perform at the level we were performing large parts of last season. So it gives me a lot of confidence that we have this performance and we have to try to find the consistency.
Although that's not going to be easy to copy that one more time. That was Mohamed Salah's 50th Champions League goal. Harry Kane also reached that landmark last night.
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