Inner belief to bring Russia reward for O’Neill

Martin O’Neill believes his team has shown great character to get themselves into this weekend’s World Cup playoff. In Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium on Saturday they now face their greatest test.

“We’ve had tough games away from home in this competition starting with Serbia,” said O’Neill yesterday at the pre-match press conference. “We’ve remained unbeaten away from home and that is no mean feat.

“That is a testament to the type of character in the team but tomorrow night is a different test again and one that we have to be up for.

“There is a good belief in the camp that maybe didn’t exist a couple of seasons ago – an inner self belief – it isn’t one that is flaunted. There is an inner sense of belief that we can go out and compete.”

His opposite number Abe Hareide seemed to suggest that 0-0 would be a good result for his side (see here) and those Irish fans lucky enough to get a ticket to the game today wouldn’t mind that result either – but crave an away goal to celebrate in this crucial clash against the Danes.

“The away goal is obviously important and is something we are capable of getting,” said O’Neill.

Glenn Whelan is likely to be brought in to sit in front of the Irish defence who proved so resolute in Cardiff last month.

“We are going to have to be like against Wales. We had to defend strongly to get a foot hold in the game. We did that, the game levelled out and then we scored the goal. We had to defend strongly in the last 25 minutes which we did.”

It mightn’t quite be a case of parking the bus in the Parken Stadium but that might help. Indeed Harry Arter made the case earlier in the week that “I think that if a bus was coming at Shane Duffy he'd try to get his head on it!”

O’Neill feels his men have grown in stature across his time in charge.

“We’ve been up against it most of the time in the last couple of years,” said O’Neill. “The Euros group was a pretty difficult one.

“We managed to come through that through the playoffs. This was more difficult as it is only the top side who goes through automatically.

“We were fourth seeds but we have made it this far. We have had some big battles, we had to win the last two games and we take our position here on merit.

“I don’t think for one minute the players think that this game is anything but difficult. Denmark have got some excellent players who can cause us difficulty.

“Eriksen has been playing fantastic football now for about 16 months. He is not the only Danish player who can play.

“They’ve got some really good players but so have we. We are going to play to our strengths. We are going to have to defend properly and take our chances.”

extratime.ie will be covering the FIFA World Cup playoff first leg between Denmark and the Republic of Ireland live from Copenhagen. Our reporter Macdara Ferris will be in the Parken Stadium to take you through the match build-up on Saturday evening. Our match preview is here.

Kasper Schmeichel: 'I'm sure we will see a little bit of Roy Keane's on-pitch persona in the Irish team' https://t.co/tzbrkEK6rNpic.twitter.com/pO9tFUQqcf

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