International Friendly Preview: Republic of Ireland -v- Slovakia

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Ireland head into this game on the back of their impressive 1-0 victory over Switzerland in Dublin last Friday night, where Ciaran Clark’s 2^nd minute header was enough to win the match.

LA Galaxy captain and record Irish goalscorer Robbie Keane will miss the game due to injury. The 35-year-old sat out the Switzerland game with a knee problem and he is again expected to be unavailable for the visit of Slovakia.

This leaves Shane Long as the only fit and recognised striker at the disposal of Martin O’Neill due to the injuries sustained by Jonathan Walters, Daryl Murphy, Keane and Kevin Doyle, who has undergone surgery to repair the nasty gash he sustained to his right leg following a tackle by Swiss defender Timm Klose.

On a more positive note, O’Neill handed international debuts to Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes, AFC Bournemouth’s Eunan O’Kane, defender Shane Duffy and Brentford’s Alan Judge on Friday night.

Judge and Duffy in particular stood out in the dour friendly match and they’ll surely be pushing for starting places in O’Neill’s starting XI for Tuesday’s match.

O’Neill insisted before the Switzerland game that he wanted to win both of the matches, and that he couldn’t guarantee all of the 33 players named in the final squad game time, however, with the lengthening injury list it would be surprising if rookies Stephen Gleeson, Alex Pearce and Cyrus Christie didn’t feature, as well as Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matt Doherty, who is in line to make his international debut.

Speaking ahead of the games against the Slovaks, Friday night’s match winner Ciaran Clark said: “To be honest everyone is trying to do their best just to try and impress and force their way into the 23-man squad (for France), whether in training or the games I'm trying to impress.”

Following Friday’s 1-0 victory over Switzerland, Ireland are now unbeaten since October, however, O'Neill feels the squad needs further improvement to reach its potential at Euro 2016 this summer.

“We made adjustments to the side (against Switzerland). I'd like to score a few more goals if we can and I’d like us to try be a bit more confident in possession, while we want to win these games it's a bit of a trial at the same time."

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia were held at home last Friday evening by Latvia. The match ended 0-0, and this will disappoint manager Ján Kozák and his Slovak side because it was them who were on top for the majority of the 90 goalless minutes.

Kozák named an experienced squad for the games against Latvia and Ireland, with no uncapped players being named in the squad.

Napoli midfielder Marek Hamsik, Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel and former Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers forward Wladimir Weiss are among the star names for the nation ranked 26^th by FIFA.

Hamsik could be rested in the Aviva Stadium following his exertions on Friday night and over a long season for Napoli. He will be key to their chances of progression in their maiden European Championships in June.

Slovakia have been drawn in Group B alongside England, Russia and Wales for the tournament in June and progression from that group is viewed as being unlikely.

Latvia frustrated Slovakia last Friday night with their heavy emphasis on defence and preventing their hosts from taking control of proceedings, something which Hamsik took particular offence to.

"Latvia came to defend and we did not manage to score. Their defence was very compact. Our goal was to win and to entertain the audience," Hamsik said.

Referee: Unknown.

MATCH STATS

Ireland have met Slovakia on four previous occasions. All of the meetings have come since 2007 and they’ve all been in qualifiers. Ireland remain unbeaten, having won the first meeting in 2007, 1-0. The rest ended in draws, 2-2, 1-1 and 0-0 respectively.

Stephen Ireland and Kevin Doyle scored when Ireland visited Bratislava in 2007. That was the first international meeting between Ireland and Slovakia.

Slovakian striker Robert Vittek scored a hat-trick for Slovan Bratislava in their 5-1 victory over UCD at the UCD Bowl in last July’s Europa League Round 2 Qualifier.

BETTING

Republic of Ireland 13/10; Draw 11/5; Slovakia 23/10.

PREDICTION

Republic of Ireland 2-1 Slovakia

Republic of Ireland

Injuries: Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane, Daryl Murphy, Jonathan Walters, Harry Arter, Jeff Hendrick.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Slovakia

Injuries: Unknown.

Doubtful: Unknown.

Suspended: None.