It’s almost time for another crucial night for the Republic of Ireland. Since the 1-0 win in Wales last month, we knew we had a World Cup playoff to look forward and there was even more optimism when we were paired with Denmark. The Danes play a way that could suit us and I think playing away from home in the first leg is a good thing.
I think back to this time two years ago when we got a 1-1 draw against Bosnia Herzegovina in the fog of Zenica. Our last away defeat in a qualifier was in October 2015, a 2-1 loss to Poland in Warsaw. That is why I think it’s a good thing to play here in Copenhagen first because if we avoid defeat tonight, it sets things up nicely for Tuesday night at the Aviva Stadium.
We’ve shown in Serbia, Austria and Wales that we can dig in away from home when we have to and I’m expecting more of the same tonight. Denmark are the home side so they’ll be expected to start on the front foot and put us under pressure from the first minute. Martin O’Neill will have the players primed for battle and the main objective will be to avoid defeat and anything better than that would be a bonus.
This team has shown throughout the Martin O’Neill era that it’s not afraid of a scrap when there’s so much on the line. Denmark fans are quite confident they’ll win because in their eyes they have superior players and most importantly Christian Eriksen. The Danes have a few handy players as well as Eriksen but the Irish players have played against tougher opposition. In such a tight game, we have to be patient and hopefully we’ll be able to pounce on a mistake from the home side. Eriksen said yesterday in the press conference that they won’t get frustrated but I’m not so sure about that. We’re good at frustrating teams and then we wait for our chance to take advantage.
There’s a good chance that we’ll score tonight because we almost always do away from home, apart from the 1-0 defeat to Scotland in 2014. O’Neill’s team pretty much picks itself bar one or two calls. Daryl Murphy scored twice against Moldova and ran his socks off in Cardiff a few days later. Shane Long may have to settle for place on the bench but his pace would be a nice option to have from the start, especially if we have to soak up some early pressure. I think Wes Hoolahan will be held in reserve and he gives you a nice option off the bench if things are not going according to plan.
There’s been a lot of talk about yellow cards in the build up and it’s highly unlikely we’ll go 90 minutes without picking up a booking from tonight’s referee Milorad Mažić of Serbia. Darren Randolph, Cyrus Christie, Shane Duffy, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Ward, Glenn Whelan, Harry Arter, James McClean, Daryl Murphy and Aiden McGeady are all one booking away from missing the second leg on Tuesday. David Meyler has to sit out tonight;s first leg due to suspension.
For now let’s just focus on tonight’s first leg and getting a positive result to take back to Dublin. The European Championships in France last summer reminded us what it’s like to be part of a major tournament so hopefully we’ll have another one to look forward to next summer.
Probable team: Randolph, Christie, Duffy, Clark, Ward, Whelan, Arter, Hendrick, Brady, McClean, Murphy.
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