Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill expects his side to face a tough test when they continue their World Cup qualifying campaign in Moldova on Sunday night.
The Green Army have taken four points from their opening two matches of the qualification process, following up a 2-2 away draw against Serbia last month, with a hard-fought 1-0 home success over Georgia on Thursday.
O’Neill’s men were nowhere near their best during their triumph at the Aviva Stadium and the former Aston Villa boss acknowledges they will face another testing encounter at the Zimbru Stadium on Sunday.
“We’re not the type of team that is going to wipe the floor with people,” O’Neill said. “We have to fight for everything. We know that ourselves and tomorrow night will be a big test again for us.”
The 64-year-old, who guided Ireland to the last 16 of the European Championships this summer, admits his team have yet to hit the heights they achieved in France, but he knows that gaining positive results is the most important thing.
“We have to try to raise ourselves again for this. It’s a big game for us and obviously the result is the most important thing,” he continued. “We can play better, we know that – we did this in France.
It’s only a couple of months ago since we played brilliantly against Sweden and brilliantly against Italy, beating Italy – and we should have beaten Sweden in the game.”
Ireland are available at 1.40 to secure all three points on Sunday night, while Moldova are on offer at 10.00 and the draw is priced at 4.75.
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