{"id":361424,"date":"2026-03-23T20:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361424\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:33:09","slug":"john-oshea-gets-cup-final-feeling-ahead-of-irelands-playoff-against-czech-republic-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361424\/","title":{"rendered":"John O\u2019Shea gets \u2018cup final\u2019 feeling ahead of Ireland\u2019s playoff against Czech Republic \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/john-o-shea\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/john-o-shea\">John O\u2019Shea<\/a> insists the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\">Republic of Ireland<\/a> are tapping into the \u201ccup final\u201d feeling gripping the squad ahead of Thursday\u2019s World Cup playoff semi-final against the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland are two wins away from qualifying for the global showpiece for the first time since 2002 with the looming trip to Prague \u2013 if successful \u2013 followed by a momentous showdown against Denmark or North Macedonia at the Aviva Stadium next Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The stakes are high, but assistant manager O\u2019Shea insists a full-strength squad were in high spirits when they gathered in Dublin on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe boys are in a good place. Training today almost reminded me of that cup final scenario,\u201d O\u2019Shea said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cEveryone is wanting to get into the team. The intensity, the noise and the atmosphere around the boys is brilliant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe quiet confidence and the group growing together is great to see, but there\u2019s also a lot of hard work to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Boss Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson has been using Ireland\u2019s dramatic injury-time victory over Hungary in Budapest in November to inspire his players as the nation looks to reach the World Cup for a fourth time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Striker Troy Parrott completed his hat-trick in almost the final act of the game to secure the playoff against the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe have to reinforce that [Hungary win] again straight away and the boss did it at a meeting this morning with the boys,\u201d O\u2019Shea said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe\u2019ll reinforce that from the training sessions and the video meetings we\u2019ll have over the next couple of days to transport them back to that moment in Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cBut then fast-forward and when we\u2019re arriving in Prague, what\u2019s ahead of us? Tough opposition, but one we can have success against.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s a case of the confidence and the memories that winning football matches against good opposition does for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John O\u2019Shea insists the Republic of Ireland are tapping into the \u201ccup final\u201d feeling gripping the squad ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,61,60,46617,43,1842],"class_list":["post-361424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-o-shea","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361424","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=361424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}