Roy says there’s no cup panic
ROY KEANE insists the Republic of Ireland will stay calm and relaxed as they chase their World Cup dream. Victory over Austria on June 11 will put the Boys in Green - who are joint top of Group D with Serbia - in a strong position for automatic qualification. Ireland restart their preparations against Mexico in New Jersey on Thursday and then host Uruguay in Dublin on Sunday week. But Keane is loathe to overhype the Austrian showdown as ‘must win’, insisting Ireland have been down this road before. He said: “In the last campaign we drew at home to Poland and Scotland when told they were games we really had to win, yet we still managed to get through – so relax. “It was said, ‘If you don’t beat Scotland then that’s the end of it’. We drew and there was a lot of doom and gloom. “Every game we seem to play appears to be a must win game. Our mindset is that we’re the home team so let’s go out and put in a good performance.” Fourth-placed Austria lost 1-0 at home to Ireland in November and therefore need a win to stand any chance of getting back in the race. Manager Martin O’neill has been talking to Ireland’s Stoke contingent who are team-mates with
FROM BACK PAGE Austria’s Marko Arnautovic. Arnautovic is banned for the Dublin game but yesterday O’neill (above) revealed: “He says they don’t feel out of the competition at all. They’re coming to Dublin to win.” But O’neill added: “If we could win the game, then it opens up a big gap.” Assistant boss Keane insists there will be no hiding place by the time the Austrian clash rolls around. He added: “On paper, Mexico and Uruguay, I don’t think we could have picked tougher friendlies in terms of the quality of the teams we’ll be playing. “It’s a tough couple of games but then we’ve the full week to prepare for the Austria game so there’ll be no excuses.”