O'Neill calls on Euros spirit for Aviva Stadium showdown

The Republic of Ireland trained at the FAI NTC at Abbotstown this morning ahead of tomorrow night’s sold out World Cup qualifier at the Aviva stadium against Wales.

Speaking to the assembled media at his pre-match press conference manager Martin O’Neill said that his players were confident going into tomorrow night’s crunch encounter and that the squad will not be overly hampered by the loss of some key players due to injury and suspension.

“We have lost a good few players, but we also have players who can come in and play, they want a place on this team regardless of the league that they play in, we saw that at the Euros last year , players are able to come in and play for this team”.

O Neill then added; “We will need to produce a similar effort to the Italy game tomorrow, some of the players who performed on that evening will need to call on that experience again and go for it. The players are confident, look we have ten points on the board and have played three games away from home. We have much confidence but there is still a distance to go.

“We are merely at the half way point in this campaign and teams are very capable of taking points off each other, look for example at Georgia, they must be the strongest sixth seed team in Europe, they were excellent in the first half against us and should have beaten Wales, there is a long way to go”

The Republic come into this game with a depleted squad with Daryl Murphy, Ciaran Clark, Shane Duffy , Harry Arter and Wes Hoolahan ruled out through injury, James McCarthy is still battling to be fit and O’Neill was upbeat about his chances of being ready for tomorrow night’s encounter.

“He is improving very quickly which is good news and we will see how he is in the afternoon and hopefully he feels ok, James is in general a very fit lad and ok, he hasn’t played for two and a half weeks but this shouldn’t be a factor.”

It promises to be an emotional night in The Aviva Stadium tomorrow with a special tribute to Derry City captain Ryan McBride, who tragically passed away this week last weekend, set to take place before kick-off. Former Derry City player James Maclean was a good friend of the Brandywell defensive stalwart and McClean will wear the number five jersey as a mark of respect to his former colleague tomorrow night.

When asked about the situation Martin O’Neill was in no doubts that McClean, who trained this morning, would be ready and raring to go come kick-off.

“James plays with emotion, his heart is on his sleeve, he has no problem with that. He is an emotional character and he was devastated as he knew the lad but he is fully focused on tomorrow night”

On Aidan MCGeady’s renaissance at Preston, O’Neill added; “It is very good he is playing well and is getting more games on a regular basis and is much fitter. Aidan likes to play in a free role and is learning how to work on the defensive aspect to his game, if he can get back to the form he showed at the early stages of the European qualifiers he can be devastating.”

O’Neill was asked by the large Welsh media presence if he felt that Wales are suffering for their success in France and that they can no longer go into a game as an underdog having reached the semi-finals of the tournament, this notion was dismissed however.

“Look, I don’t think Wales are suffering for their success, if they were as you say going into that group as an underdog well this is now not relevant, they are a very capable side containing very good and world class players, they could have beaten Georgia, but drew. Georgia were excellent here in October, Wales are not suffering, they are a very good side that are capable of winning football matches both home and away.”

Captain Seamus Coleman added that Ireland are well used to dealing with world class players when asked how they plan to cope with Gareth Bale.

“Gareth is an excellent player, he was a left back who is now a left winger and I wish him well. He is a world class player and we will need to ensure that we get tight in certain areas, but look Wales have many players that are top class but we are well used to this (citing that Ireland also faced Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Sweden during the Euros).”

Conversation then moved on to the referee and that as tomorrow night is a local derby could we expect to see a flurry of cards due to over zealous officiating,

Martin O’Neill who has Robbie Brady suspended for the encounter was adamant that discipline issues are not something that will impact his side.

“Apart from Robbie throwing the ball away that was daft, players are getting booked rather easily these days. In terms of the referee I hope he adopts a common sense approach and if it’s a bookable offense then he will take the appropriate action. This is a very capable referee and I’m sure he will deal with all situations as he sees fit.”

Wales held their press conference at the Aviva stadium this evening at 6pm and Macdara Ferris and Aaron Gallagher were there for us.