LUXEMBOURG MANAGER LUC Holtz believes Ireland have reverted to a more “British style” of play since losing to his squad in Dublin last March.
A Gerson Rodrigues goal gave Luxembourg a famous 1-0 victory early in the qualification campaign, and marked the nadir of the Stephen Kenny reign. Ireland have since improved and have lost just once in their last nine games: the 2-1 loss to Portugal in Faro.
Holtz believes the reason for this is that Ireland have reverted to a more traditional “British style.”
“In the last matches they played more with the style that they played for 100 years, it was more British style”, he told his pre match press conference. “This fighting spirit, more long balls, more contacts…I think Ireland is in good shape.”
Asked if he believes that style better suits Ireland, he replied:
“Of course, you get better results. It’s in the culture of Ireland, that fighting spirit, real contests, high intensity, all of the players play in the Premier League or Championship so they are used to playing high-intensity matches.”
Holtz says Ireland will be out for “revenge” tomorrow night, but a draw will secure Luxembourg third place in the group. Holtz says this has already been their finest qualification group ever, regardless of what happens against Ireland.
“It’s a success, it’s the best score we have had in World Cup qualifying so it’s a success, we had two really strong teams in our group, Serbia and Portugal, Ireland had a lot of problems in the beginning to get results, but even if we lose we’ll have nine points and for Luxembourg, that’s a big score, but we’ll do everything to get more points.”
With Covid restrictions relaxed, tomorrow’s game will mark the first capacity crowd ever to fill the new Stade de Luxembourg.
“We are in the special situation where the spectators come to see our team and not the other teams like before, when we played Portugal, France, England, Belgium, they came to see the superstars from abroad. Now because our team plays well, the people come to see our guys on the pitch.
“We know that we fight for third place in the group but that’s not important, what’s important is the mentality, it has to be 100%, we have to plan for 95 minutes otherwise we have no chance, we know that the Irish players play for strong clubs, have a good mentality and a fighting spirit.”
Luxembourg will be without captain Dirk Carlson through suspension, while first-choice goalkeeper Anthony Moris is absent after a positive Covid test.
