STAR PREVIEW: Republic of Ireland v Poland
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]ough match in prospect for Ireland tonight at the Aviva as they welcome Group D leaders Poland who are the top scorers in the whole competition so far and have kept clean sheets in three of their four games. They arrive in Dublin on the back of beating Germany for the first time in 19 attempts last October.
Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill is not underestimating the task ahead. He said: “What we have to do is look at where we are at the moment: we have picked up seven points, we have played three away from home. We have given ourselves a chance.
“When the draw was made and the games were set out, that was the first thing I looked at, that of the first four games, three were away from home. We could have been out of the competition before we were ever in it.
“We have given ourselves a chance by winning in Georgia and getting a point in Germany. The games here were always going to be important. Now they have come around, so we are ready for them, we hope.
“We have to be ready for them. There’s no point in being ready on Monday morning, let’s be ready tonight. Let’s go and perform, let’s perform to the best of our ability and if we do that, we’ll go close in the game.”
O’Neill will be boosted by the expected return of James McClean and Stephen Ward who are both recovered from ankle injuries but in midfield he will be without Darron Gibson and Jeff Hendrick.
For Poland Lukasz Piszczek, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Kamil Grosicki and Michal Zyro are ruled out by injury and coach Adam Nawalka is leaving out Borussia Dortmund star Jakub Blaszczykowski.
Republic of Ireland v Poland
UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifier
7.45pm LIVE ON SKY SPORTS 5
HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
Nov 2013 International Poland 0-0 Ireland
Feb 2013 International Ireland 2-0 Poland
Nov 2008 International Ireland 2-3 Poland
Apr 2004 International Poland 0-0 Ireland
Two of the four head to head encounters have finished as a draw (both 0-0) and Trevor Harris from the Star Sports trading desk reports further interest in the draw tonight with the price shortening.
For me though, the bet is for BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE at around 11/10 with Star Sports.