After more than a year of European qualifiers it all comes down to two games for the Republic of Ireland. If you offered Irish fans a playoff place before a ball was kicked I think most would have taken it. Sure we had a chance of a top two finish heading into the last game away to Poland following a famous 1-0 win over Germany but it was always going to be difficult to finish ahead of those two.
It will also be difficult to get past Bosnia Herzegovina in a playoff especially with all the injuries and suspensions. The smart thing tonight would be to keep things as tight as possible to ensure the tie is still alive heading to Dublin with Jon Walters available once again and possibly John O’Shea and Shane Long too. Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, Wes Hoolahan, Glenn Whelan and Marc Wilson are all one booking away from suspension as are Bosnia’s Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic.
The mood from the locals here in Zenica is similar to what the Irish think – we don’t fear them but they don’t fear us. Robert Lewandowski was the difference when Poland beat Ireland in Warsaw last month and Dzeko could prove to be the difference tonight. The Roma striker scored seven goals in seven qualifiers and has returned from injury so there’s no doubt he’s Bosnia’s main threat. Pjanic will pull the strings in midfield if given time and he also possesses a pretty mean free kick if given the opportunity.
Daryl Murphy is almost certain to start up front and tonight wouldn’t be a bad time for the Ipswich striker to score his first international goal. Martin O’Neill has to decide if he’ll go with Wes Hoolahan as part of the five man midfield but history suggests he won’t. The Norwich midfielder only started one away game in the qualifying campaign and that was against Gibraltar. You also have this argument of playing him in two games in a short space of time but what’s the point of holding him back for Monday if we lose badly tonight. Hoolahan can still be part of a team trying to contain the opposition and then he can show his real strength when we get the ball. It will be either Ciaran Clark or Marc Wilson in central defence with Richard Keogh or O’Neill could play Wilson at left back. The Ireland boss usually surprises us with one or two calls so it will be interesting to see what starting 11 he opts for.
The Irish players can expect a hostile atmosphere at the Stadion Bolino Polje where Bosnia have won their last three competitive games – that included a 2-0 win over Wales last month. Around 850 Irish fans will be part of the 12,000 crowd in Zenica with almost all the of them travelling from Sarajevo.
O’Neill has talked about making sure the playoff is not lost tonight
