John OShea hopes the Republic of Ireland will bounce back from
their humiliating defeat by Cyprus at the weekend with a
much-improved performance against the Czech Republic in Dublin on
Wednesday.
The Republic squad held an inquest on Sunday morning following the
5-2 thrashing in Limassol, and OShea is aware that they will need
to salvage something from Wednesdays match against the Group D
leaders currently nine points clear of Ireland if they are to
have any chance of qualifying for Euro 2008.
"Basically everyone wants to air their views and get it all out.
It's good for that to happen when you have a defeat like we did,"
O'Shea said of the squad meeting.
"There's major disappointment from the result because we know we
let ourselves down. It's our worst defeat for a long time, if not
ever. We know we really let everyone down. It was a really
disappointing performance. We're lucky we have a game on Wednesday
where we can put things right."
Meanwhile, Ryan Giggs has yet to recover from his hamstring injury
and wont be joining up with John Toshacks beleaguered Welsh
squad, who are next to face Cyprus on Wednesday. However, Rio
Ferdinand has recovered from the back problem that kept him out of
Englands disappointing draw with Macedonia and should start
against Croatia in Zagreb, alongside club team-mates Gary Neville,
Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick.
Four Reds hoping to cap fantastic results on Saturday with further
success this week are Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic
and Cristiano Ronaldo. Fletchers Scotland take on Ukraine on
Wednesday and Walter Smiths squad left for Kiev with Sir Alex
Fergusons words of congratulation ringing in their ears, the
United manager was one of the first in the home dressing room
following the Scots memorable win over France.
Jonny Evans will be aiming to continue his unbeaten international
record at home to Latvia this week after Northern Islands battling
goalless draw away to Denmark this weekend, and Nemanja Vidics
Serbia face Armenia at home after his countrys win over Denmark,
Serbias first home match as a separate nation.
Ronaldo netted twice against Azerbaijan at the weekend and should
have scored a hat-trick had his spectacular overhead kick been
properly adjudged to have crossed the line by referee Mark
Halsey.
France will be going for goals against the Faroe Islands on
Wednesday following their shock defeat at Hampden, which could
spell a recall for Louis Saha who made a late appearance as a
substitute in Glasgow. And finally, Edwin van der Sar will again
keep goal for Holland against Albania four days after the
Netherlands 1-1 draw with Bulgaria.