John O\u2019Shea believes Ireland can replicate his Germany upset of a decade ago when they host Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Portugal on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Five dropped points in the opening September double-header are the primary reason why Ireland will likely need at least four against the top two seeds to stand any chance of snaffling the playoff route to next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Portugal, ranked fifth in the world, are up first before Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson takes his side to Hungary on Sunday for what could be the final game of his tenure.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s last-chance saloon status is compounded by the injury-enforced absence of Evan Ferguson.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d scored three of Ireland\u2019s four goals in the four matches to date but a nagging ankle injury sustained during his loan spell at AS Roma rules him out.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an outside chance of him returning for the concluding fixture at the Pusk\u00e1s Arena but the diminishing hope is symptomatic of Ireland\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n
If Hungary, as expected, beat bottom seeds Armenia in the 5pm kick-off, Ireland must at least hold Roberto Martinez\u2019s star-studded outfit to a draw.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Sunday’s final match in Budapest becomes a dead rubber for Ireland, with thoughts turning to another managerial hunt for the FAI.<\/p>\n
Not since Shane Long\u2019s winner against the reigning world champions in 2015 have Ireland delivered a major shock at home.<\/p>\n
Dublin\u2019s Aviva Stadium was sold out long ago, principally due to the presence of 40-year-old icon Ronaldo, but O\u2019Shea feels there\u2019s a result in this current team that can revive a limp campaign on the final straight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group is more than good enough to get a result like that, without a doubt,\u201d said O\u2019Shea who played in the defence set up by Martin O\u2019Neill and Roy Keane on that memorable night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have that confidence and belief in the group, whatever team is selected. That\u2019s why we picked them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know they\u2019re capable of getting over the line and Thursday is the opportunity of showing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re craving, knowing it gives confidence to the whole place. The entire country can go absolutely crazy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans will help us, but also we must help them in our performance. That\u2019s by winning our duels, our contacts and forcing Portugal on the back foot a lot more in this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we can too, we\u2019ve to take advantage of our scenarios \u2013 even in our set-piece situations which hopefully we\u2019ll be getting a lot more of in this home game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hallgr\u00edmsson, O\u2019Shea and the other assistant Paddy McCarthy succeeded in executing a game-plan in last month\u2019s away fixture \u2013 until a stoppage time by R\u00faben Neves punctured Ireland\u2019s resistance.<\/p>\n
Roberto Martinez has warned his players to expect a raucous atmosphere. While Ireland will be missing suspended duo Ryan Manning and Jayson Molumby, Bruno Fernandes also serves a one-match ban for the visitors.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo will be at the tip of Portugal\u2019s armoury and O\u2019Shea reckons the charges sent into battle can again contain football\u2019s first billionaire as he seeks additions to his record-holding haul of 143 international goals.<\/p>\n
His previous two appearances for Portugal against Ireland in his homeland entailed braces but in Lisbon last month he struck the post and saw Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher save his penalty.<\/p>\n
Three days later, normal service resumed for Ronaldo when he struck twice against Hungary but the concession of a late Dominik Szoboszlai equaliser leaves them requiring victory to seal a ticket to Brazil next year with the final qualifier against Armenia to spare.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, we managed to stop him in the last game,\u201d O\u2019Shea noted about the attacker he was a teammate of at Manchester United for six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cPortugal have plenty of threats in the team.<\/p>\n
“He (Ronaldo) had that shot from outside of the box but, otherwise, the team as a unit and defensively in particular did brilliantly in the duels and crosses we had to deal with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a similar situation again on Thursday . We have to be tight, aggressive and have to clear crosses, the usual stuff that will go into a big Irish victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must defend our box. And not just defenders, it\u2019s midfield and attack. That’s everyone connected, ensuring the units are together and strong.\u201d Ireland have left their hardest tasks to the latter stages but O\u2019Shea was sanguine when asked if he\u2019s taken this scenario at the outset. He wasn\u2019t echoing Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s insistence that Ireland\u2019s fate remains within their control.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always wanting more,\u201d asserted the Waterfordman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether that\u2019s more clean sheets, goals, attacking opportunities and to be in a better position.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you always want that chance to qualify and that\u2019s what we still have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to us now. We\u2019ll have an advantage in a sense of knowing the Hungary result beforehand but we must perform in these games to get points – simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John O\u2019Shea believes Ireland can replicate his Germany upset of a decade ago when they host Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-133281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}