TODAY’S THE DAY.
Copenhagen plays host to the first leg of Ireland’s crucial 2018 World Cup play-off against Denmark tonight (kick-off 7.45pm Irish time).
It’s just over a month since Martin O’Neill’s side booked their ticket down the play-off route, James McClean coming as the hero in Cardiff.
And the entire country will be hoping for a similar moment of magic at Parken Stadium this evening.
An away goal would come as a massive boost on the ‘Road to Russia,’ but the Danes prove strong opposition with the task in hand far from easy.
Their talisman Christian Eriksen is drawing most of the attention in the run-up to tonight’s tie, with Ireland fully aware that if they are to qualify for next year’s tournament, he’s the main man they’ll have to stop.
This week, we caught up with legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, and he echoed most people’s thoughts on the Spurs playmaker.
“For me, Christian Eriksen is one of the best players in the world,” he said on camera.
“And the best players in the world, they’re used to being watched and they’re used to the special attention. You don’t stay the best player in the world if you don’t do anything in games. If you just take an hour of the game, and then you go from being one of the bets players to being one of the most irrelevant players.
“But Christian Eriksen, he produces big performances every week, every game. He plays every game, he’s never rested. He’s one of those rare types of players who wants to play every game and can play every game.
“He’s producing great things in games, his output for the team is incredible.
“He’s a world class player, you’ve got to pay him attention. You’ve got to be absolutely sure about his qualities.”
He warned however, that the entire focus should not lie with Eriksen. There are plenty of other threats all over the field.
“The one thing that we are not is a one-man team,” he continues.
“We have really good players nearly everywhere on the pitch. The nearly is that the other guys are a little bit younger and not so experienced. But that will come in time.
“Eriksen is good but there are other good players in that team.”
The importance of tonight, and of course the outcome? What does the former Manchester United and Denmark star think?
“This is massive. A lot of them will never ever ever have taken part in anything as big as this. This is two games and the successful outcome of that is World Cup tickets.
A lot of them haven’t been in that situation so you don’t know what’s going to happen. You might just end up with Ireland — the way they play — being the most capable of dealing with that situation, I don’t know.”
- As proud Energy Partner to the FAI, SSE Airtricity have given us a pair of tickets to the sold-out Republic of Ireland vs Denmark game to give away. You’ll watch the Boys in Green (hopefully) seal World Cup qualification from your premium level seats after enjoying food and refreshments in the Vavasour Suite before the match. To enter simply email competitions@the42.ie with your score prediction for the away leg and we’ll pick a winner from the correct entries on Sunday morning.
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