Jason Knight: We need to address sluggish second-half starts

Republic of Ireland midfielder Jason Knight has said that the side will attempt to address their sluggish second-half starts ahead of Sunday's crucial Euro 2024 clash with the Netherlands at the Aviva Stadium.

Stephen Kenny’s side went down 2-0 to France on Thursday with the crucial second goal coming three minutes after the interval in what is becoming a most unwanted trend for the side.

Greece and France – in Dublin – had already taken advantage of that crucial five-minute period after half-time to strike in this qualifying campaign, and Marcus Thuram added his name to the ever growing list.

"We need to look at that and we need to make sure we get that right, especially for Sunday now because that’s all we can focus on," Knight told RTÉ after the game at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

"Coming out better at half-time, making sure we’re harder to beat those first 10, 15 minutes.

"Start better, especially the second half because I think we started the first half really well; it’s just the second half we have to start well, not concede that second goal, that killer goal."

Knight said that the mood was not overly downbeat in the dressing room after the match and that the focus had very quickly switched to that crucial game with Ronald Koeman’s side, who were 3-0 winners over Greece in Group B.

'Where is this team heading?' - @DietmarHamann and @RichieSadlier assess the future of the Ireland side under the stewardship of Stephen Kenny pic.twitter.com/qaedEfRULQ

"I think fundamentally it was all about Sunday really. I think if we get a good result there, things change," Knight continued.

"That’s what we’re gearing towards, we’ve just got to recover now, get ready and go for a big performance and get a really, really big win on