A MCCLEAN SHEET

JAMES MCCLEAN believes Ireland dealt with one big problem against Denmark – and now must sort out another against Wales.

The Republic defended stoutly against the Danes, albeit the visitors didn’t have Ireland’s World Cup play-off tormentor in chief Christian Eriksen on the pitch in last night’s Nations League stalemate at the Aviva Stadium.

Eriksen’s creativity was badly missed but after losing 5-1 and 4-1 in their last competitive games, Ireland will be pleased to have shut up shop in this second pool game.

Mcclean said: “I thought we made progress tonight, we battled well. It was a clean sheet and we haven’t kept one of those since Denmark away a year ago.” The Danes nevertheless produced 15 goal chances to Ireland’s three – though Jeff Hendrick and Shane Duffy (inset) should have hit the target in the first half. Scoring goals remains a major problem for Martin O’neill’s side with no solution in sight. But Mcclean feels that could change as the home side look for revenge against the Welsh at the Lansdowne Road venue on Tuesday night. “The focus now is about trying to put it in the net – and on Tuesday we’ll try to match that hard work and determination with some goals.”