'We're preparing to win' - Ogbene sounds rallying cry

Chiedozie Ogbene threw any faux caution out the window and laid things out as plainly as possible for the Republic of Ireland ahead of Monday's clash with France: "If you're not confident there's no point in showing up."

France wiped the floor with the Netherlands in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier in Paris on Friday night.

The beaten World Cup finalists utterly dismantled a Dutch side that lost five players to illness in the build-up - Cody Gakpo, Matthijs de Ligt, Sven Botman, Joey Veerman and Bart Verbruggen.

Still, they possessed plenty of quality at the Stade de France and yet their hosts cut through them at will in a sizzling performance.

Ogbene acknowledged Didier Deschamps' men are a frighteningly good outfit, but he's staying positive ahead of the sold-out clash at the Aviva Stadium.

"I really like Ev. I think he plays like a player who already had many caps under his belt, he is very mature."

"You have to be confident," he said. "I see the way we train, the way we prepare, we have to be confident. If you are not confident there is no point in showing up. As I said, we are preparing to win the game, we are not going out there to try and stay in the game or draw the game, we are preparing to win.

"When you have that mentality, you know how football can be. It's unpredictable, you never know what can happen."

Ogbene scored the winner off the bench against Latvia on Wednesday, his fourth international goal in 14 appearances.

He linked up impressively with another substitute, the twinkle-toed Mikey Johnston, while also dovetailing nicely with man of the moment Evan Ferguson. Ogbene has a real chance of getting the nod ahead of Michael Obafemi to play off Ferguson at Lansdowne Road; and it's an opportunity he'd savour.

"Evan