Ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Treacy says the team are battling for second place in their 2024-25 Nations League campaign but argues they need to adopt a more pragmatic style of play to achieve that goal.
Ireland were drawn in a tough League B group alongside world No 3 England as well as Greece and Finland.
While the still managerless Ireland have unhappy recent experience of competitive football against both the Greeks and the Finns, it will, remarkably, be the first competitive fixture against England since the Euro 92 qualifiers, when Niall Quinn's equaliser delivered a 1-1 draw in Wembley in March 1991, a match often hailed as one of the most impressive all-round displays of the Jack Charlton era.
"We were always going to get a Pot 1 team, it just so happens it's the English," Treacy said on RTÉ's Game On.
"It will be a glamour tie, there'll be bums on seats in the Aviva and I'm sure there'll be a lot of Irish will want to travel over to London for the reverse fixture. How confident am I of getting points on the board? Not really.
"We're going to have a new manager in place by then and maybe there'll be a different style of play. We've a couple of friendlies between now and September so we can develop a style of play.
"The Finnish are in a playoff against the Welsh in March. We'll get to look at them under the spotlight. Hopefully we can see some weaknesses and places we can hurt them.
"But the draw has only been made and we're already in a race for second."
Ireland were dispatched 3-0 in a friendly in an empty Wembley in November 2020 - our first loss in the fixture since 1985 and best remembered for the mysterious pre-match motivational video which provoked a fallout in the camp and was followed by Damien Duff's
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