Collins has faith Ireland can stun France in Paris

Nathan Collins says the Republic of Ireland have faith they can turn around their Euro 2024 qualification campaign with a shock victory in France.

The Boys in Green were beaten 1-0 by the world No 2-ranked side at the Aviva Stadium in March after a commendable performance.

However they slumped to a highly disappointing 2-1 loss in Greece last Friday before easing some of the pressure on boss Stephen Kenny with a 3-0 victory over Gibraltar.

Next up is a daunting September double-header against the French in Paris and then the Netherlands in Dublin.

Those two huge games in three days could either completely obliterate any hopes of finishing in the top two of the group, or dramatically invigorate the team's chances.

Collins is optimistic it can be the latter.

"I think the Gibraltar game helped us to kickstart us," he said after being named the FAI Men’s Player of the Year at the association’s awards ceremony on Tuesday night.

"Greece at home, we know we can beat them, we can see that. What we did in that game, as much as we weren't at our best, we still created chances, we still played football and on the day, they took their chances better than us. That was it.

"So at home, we're confident in ourselves, we know we can play football, we know the style we can play, we know we can create chances.

"Then obviously, France, Netherlands, they're one-off games. You saw what we done with France at home. We frustrated the life out of them. And again, we created chances. So I think everyone has belief that we can nick a result. Everyone has belief we can beat France. So we'll just have to see.

"We need to keep going. We need to prepare."

Centre-half Collins was taken off at half-time against Gibraltar but he confirmed the move was not injury