Stephen Kenny’s Ireland face a test of courage when they face Portugal in the Aviva Stadium tonight.
Ireland come into the match on the back of October's victories against Azerbaijan and Qatar scoring seven goals without reply.
However Portugal go into the game need victory to setup a grand slam finish with Serbia on Sunday for an automatic spot in next year’s World cup.
Jayson Molumby has been ruled out of the Portugal and Luxembourg matches due to injury and will return to his club, West Bromwich Albion. Andrew Omobamidele is also out of the Portugal game due to an Achilles injury.
"Portugal have a lot of good players so we're not facing one player” said Stephen Kenny. “It would be naive to do that (concentrate only on Ronaldo) as they can punish you from so many areas”.
"We're not perfect and we know there are loads of areas where we can improve” added Kenny. ”We know Portugal are a world class team and have exceptional players so you can’t predict anything”.
"The players have trained very well and have applied themselves brilliantly, their attitude has been absolutely excellent. We know that Portugal have quality in every position so we are going to have to play above ourselves, and to get the level of performance that we require, we have to play to our full potential and we will try to do that."
“We were hurt after the last game (against Portugal), the effort we put in” explained Jeff Hendrick. “When you play a team like that, you know it’s going to be hard. We had a game-plan and it worked really, really well, up to the 88th minute”.
“We’d kept Cristiano Ronaldo quiet for the whole game – that’s why he’s a top player. To have such a quiet game and score two goals is brilliant for him, but that hurt us”.
“We have to try and put out that same level of commitment and hard work. We didn’t do too much wrong out there, but we’ve worked hard on what we can improve from that performance” added Hendrick.
Republic of Ireland Squad
Goalkeepers: Caoimhin Kelleher (Liverpool), Gavin Bazunu (Portsmouth, on loan from Manchester City), Mark Travers (AFC Bournemouth).
Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Matt Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Ryan Manning (Swansea City), Enda Stevens (Sheffield United), James McClean (Wigan Athletic), Shane Duffy (Brighton and Hove Albion), John Egan (Sheffield United), Nathan Collins (Burnley).
Midfielders: Conor Hourihane (Sheffield United, on loan from Aston Villa), Josh Cullen (Anderlecht), Jeff Hendrick (Newcastle United), Jason Knight (Derby County), Alan Browne (Preston North End), Jamie McGrath (St. Mirren).
Forwards: Callum Robinson (West Bromwich Albion), Troy Parrott (MK Dons, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur), Adam Idah (Norwich City), Callum O'Dowda (Bristol City), Will Keane (Wigan Athletic), Chiedozie Ogbene (Rotherham United)
