Holland and Russia - a warning!!

Anyone who saw Holland's 6-0 demolition job on NIreland last night or highlights of Russia's 3-0 away win over our group rivals Italy a few days ago should be in no doubt as to the calibre of the teams who will be competing in the Euro Finals!!

Holland as if we didn't know already have world class players all over the field . They are a pleasure to watch when they are in full flow. They seem to have it all. Skill, tactical nous, supreme fitness levels, speed and ruthless finishing.

Russia to a lesser extent would also fall into that category. As ROI fans know only too well they like Holland have players who are all comfortable on the ball and if it wasn't for Shay Given and Richard Dunne they could have beaten us by at least 3 or 4 goals when we drew with them out in Moscow. More of the same please from our back 4 in the Euro Finals. I couldn't care less if we bore the neutrals with our style of play. I would settle for a 0-0 draw over a 3 or 4 goal thrashing any day of the week.

We are there to compete not to entertain. Leave the entertaining up to the fancy Dan foreigners!!!

Spain obviously would be in the same mould as the above two teams.

Oh and there is also the small matter of the Germans, the Portugese and even England on their day!!

So basically if we are to compete and come home from the Euro Finals with some pride it is essential that all our players competed for the full 90 minutes and don't afford our group rivals any time or space on the ball.

If we can manage this i think we will have a good tournament. If not we could be sent packing with 3 straight defeats!!!