Hallgrimsson rues 'painful' defeat for Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson says their 1-0 defeat by Austria in their penultimate Nations League game was "painful".

Substitute Sasa Kalajdzic poked home the winner in Linz, with the narrow victory ensuring Austria claimed top spot and automatic promotion to League A.

Chiedozie Ogbene squandered a late chance to equalise for the Republic and Hallgrimsson was frustrated they left the Raiffeisen Arena empty-handed when they had chances to secure the win which would have kept their hopes of winning the group alive.

"It was painful not to get anything from this match. I think we deserved at least a draw, but we needed the win for this game to count," he told RTE.

"I think we had the chances, the openings and the positions to do that, but this was not our day in goalscoring, so it is disappointing.

"Everything that we asked the players to do, they did and I think they gave everything.

"For that reason, we should be happy in a way but, obviously, we don't want to be building something, we want to win games."