Martin puts Irish on alert
MARTIN O’NEILL has warned his Republic of Ireland side to improve ahead of their tricky trip to Moldova tonight.
Failure to win against the minnows at the Zimbru Stadium and O’Neill and Ireland will feel a seismic shock. And, while he knows that victory is the only option, he is braced for another rocky ride.
O’Neill said: ‘We’re not the type of team that is going to wipe the floor with people, we have to fight for everything.
‘We know that ourselves and this will be a big test again for us. It’s not a case of raising ourselves against the best opposition.’
O’Neill tore into his players during the interval at the Aviva Stadium before Seamus Coleman forced the only goal early in the second half to defeat Georgia.
‘I think what’s lost in this is that we actually won the game against Georgia, albeit with a piece of brilliance from Seamus,’ added the manager. ‘We have to try to raise ourselves again for this. It’s a big game for us and, obviously, the result is the most important thing.
‘We can play better, we know that — we did this in France a few months ago.
‘Then (in the last 16) France were extremely concerned about us for a long period.
‘We’ve now played two games (in qualifying) and have gone to Serbia and drawn against a top-class side and got a win at home without playing well. These things are forgotten about.’