A low-key draw with Sweden and a thrashing from Belgium left Ireland on the verge of leaving Euro 2016 early, but a stunning late victory over Italy in their last group game has set up a last 16 clash with hosts France, and they see no reason not to progress further.
“I do not think we have anything to fear,” said Robbie Brady, whose goal edged out Italy 1-0. “They are a top-class team but if we can stick together, we can hurt anybody. We can go as far as we allow ourselves in this tournament.”
France topped Group A with seven points, having only conceded one goal, and will be strong favourites for today’s first of three matches. Ireland progressed
as one of the four strongest third-placed sides.
While Ireland’s last win was against a second-string Italian side, in qualifying they took four points from World Cup winners Germany including a famous
victory over Joachim Loew’s side in Dublin.
“We will just have to prepare as hard as we can because they will be a tough outfit but if we click on the night we will give them a difficult game,” Brady said.
It’s a rematch of the controversial 2010 World Cup play-off in which France defeated Ireland thanks to a winning goal created by a Thierry Henry handball. But revenge is not on the mind of veteran striker Robbie Keane, who scored in the second leg of the tie.
“Yeah I was there,” he said. “I will not think about that for one second. How long ago was it? Seven years... move on.”
France coach Didier Deschamps has a settled defence in front of keeper Hugo Lloris but has rotated his midfielders and forwards in an attempt to find the strongest combination from a huge array of attacking talent.
Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Anthony Martial, Kingsley Coman and Olivier Giroud are all scrambling for spots against Ireland with the one attacking certainty likely West Ham’s creative midfielder Dimitri Payet.
He scored sensational goals against both Romania and Albania and, though he only made a late cameo, smacked the bar against Switzerland.
“Since the start of the tournament I have felt really good,” Payet said.”I am feeling confident and that’s allowed me to play without pressure and to put in good performances.”
Laurent Koscielny and Adil Rami have formed Deschamps’ first-choice pairing in the middle of the back four.
“Offensively we can always improve something,” Koscielny said. “The most important thing is we remain confident. It doesn’t matter who we play against, we have to win.” Rami added: “We’re now in the last 16, this is a different thing. But it’s still the same, we have to play football out there.”