Shane Duffy admits Republic of Ireland must 'go for it' after cagey first-leg draw with Denmark

The Irish lacked creativity in the first leg

Duffy knows Ireland will be hard to beat (Getty)

Shane Duffy says that Ireland have to “go for it” in the World Cup play-off second leg against Denmark on Tuesday, but warned it won’t be “all guns blazing” due to the danger of players like Christian Eriksen potentially cutting them open early on for an away goal.

The Brighton and Hove Albion centre-half accepted that the 0-0 first leg in Copenhagen on Saturday had been “ugly”, but felt it was a case of both sides “shutting each other out”.

Duffy said Ireland were satisfied they didn’t lose the game in the Parken Stadium, even though the lack of an away goal puts a pressure on for Tuesday, but said that makes them even more confident the Danes won’t score in Dublin.

“We’ll be hard to beat, disciplined,” Duffy said ahead of the second leg. “We know we can score goals. We’re at home, we’ve got to go for it. We’ve got to score a goal to get through the tie, so we’ve got to go for it.

“It will be [different to the first leg] but not with the game plan. We’ve still got to respect them. They’ve got players who can cut you open. We’ve got to concentrate and that’s what we’ll do. When our time is to score, that will be, we’ve just got to take it easy and see what happens. You can’t get ahead of yourselves and go all guns blazing and lose the match early on and chase it down.

“We’ve got to respect the opposition a little bit, they’ve got quality and we’ve got to soak up their pressure and they soaked up our pressure a little bit. We’ll try and stay in the game as long as we can and we’re confident we can score goals against them at home.

“I think we can keep…they can’t score against us in their home tie, I’m quite confident they won’t score [in Dublin]. We know their threats even more now, if we defend like we did tonight, I’m sure we can score.”


 Ireland must score or face a penalty shootout (Getty Images)
 (Getty Images)

Duffy said it had been a tough, hard-fought match in Copenhagen, something that came across in an attritional encounter of few chances.

“It was a difficult night. They’re a good team, I thought they were good, we defended well, yeah it was a difficult night but satisfied we didn’t lose the game, kept a clean sheet and take it back to Dublin now.

“I thought they were physical. They are a big team and matched us in a way that…we probably shut each other out. It’s not an excuse but the pitch wasn’t great to play football on, you could see some of their technical players, even some of their best players, they were struggling, it was bobbling, it was a tough night for both teams. I thought they were a good team and it’s going to be another tough night on Tuesday but nothing we haven’t come up against before.

“It was scruffy, ugly. I don’t know, maybe we could have put our foot on it and that. But you’ve got to give credit, we kept a clean sheet out here, defensively solid. They beat Poland 4-0 here so you’ve got to realise they’re a good team. They didn’t score against us. It was a great effort from everyone

“It doesn’t matter how we get through as long as we get through… hopefully it’s another big one.”