Heimir Hallgrimsson said he was “lost for words” after his Republic of Ireland side “gave up” during a second-half collapse that led to a crushing 5-0 Nations League defeat by England at Wembley.
After a scoreless first half in which the Irish had effectively frustrated England, Harry Kane put the hosts ahead from the spot after Liam Scales was given a second yellow card and sent off for a foul on Jude Bellingham.
Down to 10 men, the Republic of Ireland crumbled as Anthony Gordon and Conor Gallagher quickly stretched England’s lead before Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Harwood-Bellis completed a miserable evening for Hallgrimsson.
“Well, I’m kind of lost for words,” the manager said.
“Six minutes of kind of madness. Yeah, it was a shock, conceding a penalty, conceding a goal, losing a player. We probably lost our heads at this moment, leading into a second goal and a third goal. And from there you can see, yeah, we maybe lost our head, gave up.”
The former Iceland boss, who replaced Stephen Kenny earlier this year, added: “We’ve talked and I said before we’re struggling with confidence, and they clearly took away all confidence from what we did really well in the first half.
“So, yeah, you cannot explain things like this. It’s just happened, a slap in the face and was difficult to come back from it.”