Ireland fell to a second 2-0 Nations League defeat in the space of four days as Greece came away with victory in Dublin.

After a decent opening half, the Irish fell away as they were punished five minutes after the break by affording Fotis Ioannidis far too much space to get his shot away that nestled in the corner of the net and then were caught late on when pushing for an equaliser.

Heimir Hallgrímsson has now lost both his opening games in charge on home turf including Saturday's reverse to England and although there were some bright moments in the first half, they didn't carry into the second as the Greeks punished mistakes that have been all too familiar in recent years.

It has been a difficult few years and Hallgrímsson believes a group of players low on confidence is part of the issue.

"As I said in the dressing room: winning is a habit and unfortunately, losing is too," he told RTE.

"You can sense there is a lack of confidence in this team. We only needed to give them a sniff of a chance and they were 1-0 up - their first chance at goal and they scored from it. That's what happens to a team without confidence."

Ireland thought they had the lead late in the first half when Chiedozie Ogbene's left-footed shot found the top corner, but was ruled out for offside.

They created a few openings in the first period and looked the more likely towards the break as they set about the visitors, but the breakthrough didn't come.

Instead, they were caught out five minutes into the second period as Ioannidis curled home from the edge of the box - yet another case of the Irish defence backing off and allowing the shot.

The visitors maintained the pressure although they had some defending to do in the closing stages with substitute Callum Robinson seeing a deflected shot drop just the wrong side of the post.

However, the hosts were caught out again as Christos Tzolis outpaced Matt Doherty in the 87th minute, thumping past Caoimhin Kelleher to wrap up a second win of the campaign for Greece.

Chiedozie Ogbene reacts to his goal being ruled out for offside
2Gallery

Chiedozie Ogbene reacts to his goal being ruled out for offside

"For us, it's within our principles to press the player in space," Hallgrímsson insisted. 

"It was too open, so we should press instead of dropping off and give the chance to shoot. We will for sure improve in these areas as time goes on.

"On the other hand, I was really pleased at half-time as we showed structure and nullified what the Greeks would do. We said 'don't give them a chance to score' as they are like a snake that can bite you if you give them a chance and that's what they did.

"Once a Greek team is winning 1-0 it's difficult to play against them. Then we got a little bit disorganised and maybe rushed it too much, lost it open and conceded a second goal and then it's pretty difficult to come back."