Mccarthy insists Irish can finally break Danes hoodoo

Mick Mccarthy says he would “go home” if he did not think the Republic of Ireland could beat Denmark to reach the Euro 2020 finals.

The 60-year-old boss will send his team into battle with a familiar foe at the Aviva Stadium tonight knowing victory will secure a third successive trip to the European Championship.

It will be the sixth time the sides have met in two years and the Republic have won none of the previous five, drawing four and losing one, although Mccarthy insists that has to change some time.

He said: “When people tell me that ‘You haven’t beaten somebody for so many times’, well, I always believe it’s about time we did and that’s the mentality that I try to instil into everybody else.

“Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen again.

“There’s loads of places being flooded in England at the minute – they’ve never been flooded before, but they are because it’s been raining a lot.

“I just think that for us, always there’s a big performance in us that can win a game. If I don’t believe it, I might as well go home – and I’m not going home anytime soon.”

Asked by a Danish journalist if he accepted that Age Hareide’s team is technically better than his, Mccarthy – who as a schoolboy watched then Second Division Sunderland stun the mighty Leeds to lift the 1973 FA Cup – puffed out his chest and said: “If I sat here and said I was better than everyone else, you wouldn’t believe me, would you?”