Martin O'Neill has suggested that Stephen Ward and Jon Walters might both be fit enough to be considered for selection for Ireland's European Championship second-round game against France with both taking some part in Saturday afternoon's training session at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
“Stephen Ward is hoping to do a little bit today,” said the manager. “He is improving daily which is good news and Jon has done very well over the last couple of days which is great so we’ll have a little look at them today. Stephen’s injury was a kick which has blown up pretty badly, but Jon is if feeling okay so we’ll see.”
O’Neill said that Ireland would look to win the game and take their place in the quarter-finals. They would not, he said in any case, go out of the competition without a fight.
“I don’t think you want to go out of the competition meekly, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “I’ve spent my time in the last two years sending out adventurous teams to win games (and) you want to go out there blazing; we want to try to stay in it, we think that we can do something. We’ll go into the game with some confidence off the back of the performance against Italy which is good.”
The hosts, he said, will present another major challenge, but the intention is that Ireland will look to implement their own game plan as they did against Italy.
“They are a very good side but I think that the approach we take is within ourselves. They (the French) remind me of 1998 when they were under a lot of pressure to do well but (after coasting through the group) they improved over the course of the tournament and eventually won it. This French side will be hoping to do somewhat the same.
“But we play quality opposition on a fairly regular basis so we’re used to it. The French are a very good side, their players are at very big teams and have to be watched very closely but I think that’s the way that we’ll approach it.
“I think our mental toughness is a very important factor. We showed that the other night. The fact we had spurned a great chance with five or six minutes left against Italy and I suppose players might have been thinking that’s it, but then Robbie starts the move off and continues into the penalty area and manages to meet the ball without any fear at all . . . this lad had just been crushed a couple of months ago with Norwich (in March, when he lost two teeth in a collision with team-mate Gary O’Neil) but showed absolutely no fear whatsoever.
“I think that goal epitomised the spirit in the team although while we keep talking about spirit, we have some players who can play: Robbie has been terrific, Jeff (Hendrick) has been great, there have been some brilliant performances, there had to be, you couldn’t get four points in that group without being able to play.”
Asked about the ticket situation – Irish fans have been allocated around 4,600 of the roughly 59,000 tickets available for the game – and the difference in the number of days the respective teams have had to recover after their last group games, O’Neill made it clear which had upset him more.
“I think that the ticket allocation is something that I do have a gripe about,” he said. “It’s totally disproportionate for a stadium this size. I think for us, or any team that is playing in the round of 16 here, to be allocated less than 5,000 tickets is totally unfair. Totally disproportionate. Not just us, I think for any side a certain allocation should have been set aside for the team that was going to be here.
“As for the rest; you just have to take that into consideration. When we kicked off last it was always to going be a factor to some extent. You have to deal with it. It’s not the first time that an international side has had an advantage in terms of time for rest. If the players have recovered and can show the same zeal that they showed the other night then we will be ready for it.”
He said, however, that the players who were involved in Wednesday night have done very little work out on the training ground since and that Saturday’s session at the stadium would be very light.
“We’ll do a little bit of work today but we won’t be doing very much. It’s tournament football and you have to rest up.”
The hope is that they have enough energy to keep going for 90 minutes and possibly beyond with the game potentially lasting 120 after which penalties could decide who advances. They have, he said, been planning for every eventuality.
“We have been practising, even in the training before we got to Paris, so,” he joked, “if we do go to penalties there are at least three players I can think of who will not be taking any . . . ”
