Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill to throw caution to the wind and attack against Bosnia

Republic of Ireland coach is wary of sitting back in Euro 2016 play-off despite away goal advantage

Robbie Brady was one Ireland's star players at Euro 2016 (Getty Images)

The fog-shrouded point won by Republic of Ireland in Zenica on Friday has produced clarity in one sense. Robbie Brady’s away goal means a victory, or a goalless draw, against Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight will send Martin O’Neill’s team to France for next summer’s European Championships. Less clear is how to approach the task.

O’Neill yesterday insisted his team would be aiming to win, arguing: “Bosnia are capable of scoring, they could wipe that advantage, that away goal that we have, within minutes of the game [starting], and then, suddenly, they are on the front foot.

“The tie is finely balanced and we have to go for the win. That has to be the mindset. If we think that we can keep them out for 90 minutes and camp ourselves just outside our own penalty area, that would be a recipe for disaster. We have to consider being really on the front foot, genuinely, and going and trying to win this game, and that’s it.”

Easier said than done. Ireland are unbeaten at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium since the summer of 2014, an eight-match run that has included five clean sheets. Their strength is their defensive resilience, not their goalscoring. Discounting the matches against makeweights Gibraltar, Ireland scored eight goals in eight group D qualifying matches. The players will go on to the field with that knowledge and it would be no surprise if they took a cautious approach to pushing men forward. However positive the dressing-room message, the longer the game goes on without score the deeper Ireland can be expected to sit.

Home crowds like their teams to be positive, but tonight’s full house know what is at stake and will not be expecting a gung-ho display. They will, though, both be expecting Ireland to progress given the first-leg result but feel very nervous about it. Though O’Neill said, “the crowd will get behind us” and called for a repeat of the atmosphere generated during last month’s victory against Germany, the likelihood is that if the game remains goalless the mood will increasingly become one of nervous expectation.

O’Neill’s experience will help, but he can only do so much from the sidelines. Which is why he hopes John O’Shea’s hamstring problem has healed sufficiently for him to play. However, if the 34-year-old cannot be risked, O’Neill can draw sustenance from the impressive display in Zenica by centre-halves Richard Keogh and Ciaran Clark. Definitely returning to the starting XI is Jon Walters, who was suspended on Friday, but there are doubts about who leads the line. An ankle injury has prevented Shane Long playing for a month, while Daryl Murphy, who played in Bosnia, sat out training yesterday with a calf problem. That, though, said O’Neill, was precautionary, which suggests Murphy, still seeking an international goal after 18 appearances, will start, with Long an option on the bench.

The other problem position for O’Neill is left-back. Edin Dzeko, Miralem Pjanic and Asmir Begovic are Bosnia’s best-known players but it was right-winger Edin Visca who caused most problems on Friday and created Dzeko’s goal. O’Neill began in Bosnia with Burnley’s Stephen Ward at left-back but he has only played 12 minutes of club football in three months and it showed. He was replaced with a quarter of the match remaining by Marc Wilson. Brady has also played there for O’Neill but is not naturally a defender.

O’Neill said of Visca yesterday: “They’ve got a very fine right winger. I think he could cause problems to anybody.”

Bosnian coach Mehmed Bazdarevic has Everton midfielder Muhamed Besic available after suspension, but with a positive result required is more likely to recall Haris Medunjanin. An alternative would be to play both and move Pjanic into a more advanced role behind Dzeko. Bosnia won 3-2 in Cyprus last month to qualify for the play-offs so will not be daunted by the need to gain a positive result in Dublin.

With England, Wales and Northern Ireland already qualified, there is a hunger here for the Republic to join the party and O’Neill said: “It would be a big boost for the country if we could qualify.”