Séamus Coleman believes the Republic of Ireland have “a duty” to lift the country by finishing the job of qualifying for a World Cup finals for the primary time since 2002.
Ireland go to the Czech Republic on Thursday in a World Cup playoff semi‑remaining that few would have imagined attainable after amassing one level from their opening three qualifiers. Having reignited their marketing campaign with two Troy Parrott-inspired wins towards Portugal and Hungary in November, nevertheless, Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side will take confidence and momentum into their bid to finish a 24-year absence from the World Cup.
Playoffs have introduced distress for the Republic in the previous, from Thierry Henry’s handball for France in 2009 to Denmark’s 5-1 rout in Dublin in 2017, however Coleman insists current historical past can be forgotten in Prague and he has urged the staff to end the job. A house playoff remaining towards Denmark or North Macedonia awaits the winner of the semi-final on the 19,370‑capability Fortuna Arena.
“The current group are all so young so I don’t think they are dwelling on that hurt too much,” the Republic and Everton captain mentioned of earlier playoff defeats. “We are just riding the wave of confidence we’ve got from the last two games. To see how the nation is feeling now is incredible. We’ve got a duty to try and make them even happier.”
At 37 and with accidents limiting his appearances for Everton, that is Coleman’s final probability to attain a World Cup. “Selfishly it would be amazing because as players you want to do as much as you can in the game, but from the aftermath of the last two games and seeing what it did to our country, it was incredible how it lifted our country and lifted our people.
“It genuinely made people happier and gave people something to get up in the morning and talk about, which is so important. So as much as we want to do it for ourselves and for the staff behind the scenes, we want to do it for the people of our country as well.”
They have been allotted only one,024 tickets for the semi-final however, having shocked a hostile crowd of nearly 60,000 in Budapest with their final‑gasp win in November, Coleman says the Republic is not going to be intimidated in Prague. “This group has been through a lot,” the defender mentioned.
“The manager has touched a lot this week on the hurdles the group has overcome and I think we are ready for it. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be fiery out there and maybe two years ago it would have been a lot for the young lads to take, but I think now everyone has stepped up and are prepared for what’s to come.”
Coleman’s confidence was shared on the pre-match press convention by Hallgrímsson, who lately prolonged his contract with the Football Association of Ireland till the top of the Euro 2028 marketing campaign. The Czech Republic pose a conundrum forward of the semi-final in the sense it is going to be Miroslav Koubek’s first sport in cost of the nationwide staff. The 74-year-old former Viktoria Plzen coach was appointed in December as successor to Ivan Hasek, who was sacked following the shock defeat by the Faroe Islands in October that ended their hopes of automated qualification.
Hallgrímsson mentioned: “There could be a change with their new coach so we are not overly analysing them. We are just focusing on ourselves and trying to build on what we have been doing. We know this coach likes to play a different formation to what they have done before so we plan for both, but we are not overly concerned about what he will throw at us.”
