Shay Given hails Robbie Brady for releasing the pressure cooker with Ireland winner v Finland

Former Ireland star Shay Given was full of praise for a battling Nations League performance that delivered a much-needed victory and transforms the players mentally heading into Greece clash

Shay Given hailed Robbie Brady for delivering Ireland from the building pressure-cooker situation they were in.

Before kick-off in Helsinki, Given said he would take an ugly win as Heimir Hallgrimsson hoped for a first win in three at the start of his reign.

In the end, Ireland got a dramatic one as they were hugely fortunate not to go 2-1 down in the 87th minute before Brady buried a shot after a superb assist from Festy Ebosele.

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"Yeah, delighted for him," said ex-Ireland goalkeeper Given about his former team-mate Brady. "I was on the bench in Lille actually when he scored that goal against Italy and he's had some big goals for Ireland now, today's goal as well.

"Just to change the confidence and the lack of confidence that we spoke about before the game, it's a massive goal, young Festy came off the bench as well with the assist. Seventy seconds earlier they could have gone 2-1 up and there's moments in a career or a manager's tenure, I know it's early days.

"But this group of players, in that 70 seconds they could have been 2-1 down and you could imagine they could be getting drained of confidence.

"But they didn't, their header goes wide of the post and Festy pops up with a brilliant assist, and Robbie Brady, once he took that first touch and smashed it into the back of the net, it was a great feeling."

Speaking on RTE, Given added that the result would give Ireland a massive boost going to Greece for Sunday's next qualifier. "I've been there, and you can imagine sitting over in the dressing-room now in Finland, they'll be buzzing, they'll be high-fiving each other, because it's like a pressure-cooker," he said.

"They all know it's a huge honour to play for your country, they all want to play well for their country, but clearly it hasn't been going well for a considerable time now. So again, it's like a pressure cooker building and building and building, and it just eases after that result.

"They'll go into the game with a bit more...it won't be easy, Heimir said after today they'll have to recover and rest up but from the mental side of things they'll be buzzing going into the weekend."

Greece top the group after beating England at Wembley and Given believes that Hallgrimsson will change his approach for their meeting.

"I would think so yeah, especially after the result as well," he said. "Greece are a good team, as they've proven over the last couple of years.

"Going to Wembley (and winning), we saw what England did to us in the first half especially, we couldn't get near them, they were so good. So England are a good team and Greece have gone there and got the victory.

"Can Heimir set up differently at the weekend? There were times against England where some of the team were pressing and some weren't, and England were just picking us off.

"There was moments tonight when Finland had nice possession but we sat in a nice defensive block and they weren't good enough to break us down. We might see a lot of that at the weekend, but then we have to be on the turnover to keep the pressure on Greece as well."

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