O'Shea confident ahead of Austria Aviva match

John O’Shea spoke today about how last Friday’s determined draw with Sweden has given the Irish team confidence going into Tuesday crucial clash against Austria at the Aviva. The Waterford man is hoping that the home crowd can help spur on the players as they stay in the hunt for Brazil 2014 World Cup qualification.

“There is a good positive atmosphere,” said O’Shea about the team, a team he may well captain against Austria with Robbie Keane’s absence due to injury. “We have grown in confidence including our younger players from the other night. We will have the home fans behind us. Three home games in a row so it is back in our court and we can take advantage of that.”

Austria come to the Aviva stadium on the back of an impressive 6-0 home victory over the Faroe Islands. “We are all fully aware of the dangers we face against Austria. The job is only half done. Four points was the target before the two games and if we can do that we will be very pleased. 

“We are not taking Austria lightly. They caused Germany lots of problems and they will be confident having scored six goals the other night. They have a lot of attacking threat. If we can get on the front foot like we did against Sweden and press as a cohesive unit like the other night, we can stop Austria play and build our attacks from here.”

Shane Long spearheaded the Irish attack against Sweden but Trapattoni will have to rearrange the strike force following Robbie Keane’s withdrawal with a calf strain. Conor Sammon, Kevin Doyle (who was called up to the squad on Sunday) and Wes Hoolahan are the likely options. Hoolahan, who came on for Keane late in the game in Stockholm, would be a positive choice but it would be a big step up for Trapattoni to hand him a place in the starting line-up.

O’Shea felt that on Friday they just missed out in the final third of the pitch but it should be different on Tuesday “We got ourselves into some great positions but with our final ball, we either over hit it or picked the wrong pass. We know the quality we have in the team. [Shane] Long was unlucky. He sent the defender onto the ground and unfortunately the ball hopped up and he must have thought he was back playing for Tipperary! He will cause Austria lots of problems if the manager starts him again.”

The Sunderland player is hoping that the clean sheet from Friday is repeated against Austria along with the positive deployment of Seamus Coleman and Marc Wilson as overlapping full backs. “We have the confidence of the attacking threat of Seamus and Marc joining in. It was good to see the other night.

“The manager balanced that out with Paul Green covering. The tactics worked a treat and maybe we can cause Austria more problems than we did Sweden. There is very little between the teams in international football so if we can do a bit more along with our set piece we can cause problems.”