AFTER WATCHING THE confusion Costa Rica’s Joel Campbell caused in the Ireland defence on Friday night, you’d think Martin O’Neill would be worried about the prospect of facing Cristiano Ronaldo this evening.
However, the Ireland boss thinks it is “great” that his side want to challenge themselves against the best players in the world so he hopes the current Ballon d’Or holder lines out in Met Life Stadium in New Jersey.
He accepts that trying to stop the Portuguese attacker would be a monumental challenge though.
“Massive, of course.
“We had a few problems the other night at the beginning of the second half of the game for about 15 or 20 minutes when Campbell came out wide and caused us a few problems, so you could imagine Ronaldo being in that sort of form.
“He is one of the top two players in the world. He’s just a brilliant, brilliant player.
“But again, it should be great for us to want to go and play against him, if that’s the case. I think actually, the players want him to be playing in the game so they can go and test themselves.”
O’Neill also said he believes that, regardless of whether or not Ronaldo starts, a game against the fourth ranked team in the world is a good way for his charges to wrap up their season.
“I suppose we would like to get a really good performance for a start, something akin to the Italian performance, and maybe just try to finish the off-season on a really decent note.
“Obviously Portugal in their last game, I don’t know what way they will approach it but for us, it’s still a big test.
“I would just like to finish on a high if we can.
Whatever happens, the 62-year old feels he and the squad have benefited from the games against Italy, Costa Rica and Portugal.
“We have utilised [the squad].
“We have made a number of changes in each game and players have had to get used to playing with each other, some of the lads who have come into the squad for the first time, for instance.
“If you look at Shane Duffy, he played the game the other night and overall, he did fine in the game and he will come on really well for the experience. I think it’s the same for a number of the younger lads too.
“But just overall, just blending things as much as we can together, really that would be the essence of it.”
