OMENS WILL NOT WASH WITH JOSH
IRELAND put their World Cup credentials on the line tonight with Martin O’Neill telling his players: “Don’t die wondering.”
KASPER SCHMEICHEL was last night reminded of the boozy night Roy Keane headbutted his dad Peter when they were Manchester United team-mates. But the Leicester star refused to put the boot into the legendary Irish player ahead of Denmark’s World Cup play-off first leg with the Republic of Ireland tonight. Rather, Schmeichel put assistant boss Keane (left) on a pedestal.
Schmeichel (right) said: “My memories of Roy Keane are mostly of him holding trophies and being an inspirational leader and captain for United. Roy is a typical Irishman, a unique character. I’ve played with a lot of Irish players and I very much enjoy their attitude and approach to life. “They are serious about their work but they also like to have fun. I’m sure we’ll see Roy Keane’s on-pitch persona in this Irish team.”
As the seeded team, Denmark are favourites to go through yet Schmeichel warned: “We’re confident in our own abilities but we were favourites against Sweden in the Euro 2016 play-offs – and everyone saw how that ended.” MICHAEL O’NEILL’S Northern Ireland have already made history – and Josh Magennis believes they can write some more tomorrow in Basel. No team have qualified for a World Cup having lost at home first in a play-off. But Magennis (above) is confident that will change when they face Switzerland tomorrow, trailing 1-0 through a hugelycontroversial penalty. O’Neill’s men became the first Northern Ireland team to qualify for the Euros and Magennis insists they can surprise everyone again. “We’re not worried about that stat,” said the Charlton striker. “There’s a first time for everything.” They pulled qualification out of the fire before and recovered from being outplayed by Poland in their first game at Euro 2016 to defeat Ukraine and make the last 16. Magennis added: “We’re 1-0 down with 90 minutes to play. “If someone said at the start of the campaign we needed to win one game in Switzerland to reach the World Cup we would have taken it.”