Dublin is ready to host one huge party on Tuesday evening, just so long as Estonia fail to produce the comeback of all comebacks.
The scenes of a few thousand joyous Republic of Ireland fans all over Tallinn last Friday after Giovanni Trapattoni’s men trumped the Estonians 4-0 are set to be replicated 15 fold after the second leg of the Euro 2012 playoff. However, all the manager will want is for his men to negotiate the 90 minutes safely and ensure a first major finals appearance for a decade.
It is surely not even a case of dotting i’s and crossing t’s for the Boys in Green when they welcome a suspension-hampered Estonia to the Aviva Stadium. Friday’s result has cast all reasonable doubt aside as the nation’s loyal fans look forward to going to Poland and Ukraine.
The team may have gotten a few things easy in Tallinn, but ultimately their professionalism – which echoed that of the staunch elder statesmen at their helm - ensured that they left nothing after them. And as a result four years of guts and graft under Trapattoni, if not a great deal of beauty, is set to be rewarded at last when the final whistle goes in Dublin.
Ireland have at no point under their veteran manager looked like world-beaters, but more importantly they have always looked very very hard to get a win against. The prospect of the Estonians putting at least four past a side who have conceded just one goal in their last ten games has been dismissed by all observers and, while nothing is impossible, it really is unfathomable to think that a team with this defensive unity and determination will allow themselves to be put in danger.
And, with the exception of Aiden McGeady, who Trapattoni says will come on in the second half, it will be the main men who have gone the distance with the Italian who have the final say in the 12th and final qualification game of this campaign.
Stephen Hunt has been chosen to start, a chance his always-industrious impact merits, while elsewhere only Stephen Ward at left back is a relatively new member of the unit that the manager, all but immovable in his beliefs, has generally gone with over his tenure.
John O’Shea and Kevin Doyle are set to come back in after injury and suspension respectively. O’Shea will replace Stephen Kelly at full back, who suffered a groin knock in training over the weekend. Doyle, meanwhile, will displace Jon Walters up front in spite of a fine showing from the Stoke man on Friday – one that suggested he will challenge the Wolves man all the way for a starting place for Ireland in the months to come.
Elsewhere, captain Robbie Keane and fellow long-time servants Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Damien Duff (in spite of a minor rib injury sustained on Friday) will be clapped on by a capacity crowd, while Sean St Ledger, Glenn Whelan and Friday’s man-of-the-match Keith Andrews will complete the line-up.
As well as the fleet-footed McGeady, Walters, Keith Fahey and Simon Cox will all be among those hoping for a run-out from the bench on what should be a great night for all in green. Younger hopefuls Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy will likely have to wait for upcoming friendlies to stake their claims for places in any potential 23-man squad for next summer.
The Estonians, many of whose fans have vented their ire at their take on how first leg referee Viktor Kassai went about his job, go into the game without their captain Raio Piiroja. He joined fellow centre-half Andrei Stepanov in being sent off in Friday’s game and earning a suspension, so Enar Jaager is set to switch from full back into the centre and Tihhon Sisov and Alo Barengrub may come in.
Whether long-term exile Joel Lindpere will be thrown in from the start this time remains debatable. Estonia do have enough dangerous players in their side to regain some pride after their ultimate collapse on Friday, when they certainly threatened Ireland either side of half-time on their way to actually getting more possession. All the same, even very few Estonians expect a miracle at the Aviva, an unlikely outcome that would leave the Irish even lower than they did two years ago after Paris, Thierry Henry and all that.
Trapattoni last week warned of not thinking the cat is in the sack when the cat is not yet in the sack. After Friday’s game he, less convincingly, said the cat is in the sack but could still scratch his way out.
There appears to be no hope for this feline now though, and even the most ardent cat-lovers in the throngs of green at the Aviva on Tuesday will drink to that.
Republic of Ireland: Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Duff, Whelan, Andrews, Hunt, Doyle, Keane (captain).