If Ireland walk the walk tonight like Martin O’Neill talked the talk yesterday then an Aviva Stadium rendered almost mute by the dour spectacle of Saturday’s scoreless draw with Denmark might finally have something to cheer about.

Shane Duffy is probably the only Irish player entitled to have mixed feelings about the last time the Danes were in town and only then if the definition of the word ‘mixed’ can be stretched to accommodate one spasm of ecstasy giving way to prolonged agony.

New competition, new anthem, new trophy — but more than a touch of the same old story for Martin O’Neill and Ireland in Lausanne yesterday.

Ireland as a nation suffered three significant setbacks in the past two days, at least one of them self-inflicted. Our soccer team succumbed to the Danes on Tuesday night, and yesterday we lost out to France to host the Rugby World Cup.

Danish manager Age Hareide was asked to expand yesterday on what he meant when he said recently that Ireland are easy to read but difficult to resist. 

He might not get to start in Copenhagen on Saturday but don’t rule out the possibility of Callum O’Dowda having a say in proceedings before the play-off against Denmark reaches its conclusion in Dublin next Tuesday night.

Roy Keane has heaped high praise on Martin O’Neill, saying he has no hesitation about mentioning him in the same breath as managerial greats Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough.

I’M just back from Copenhagen. You could tell something had changed there.

England manager Roy Hodgson has named Dr Steven Peters as the psychologist he has entrusted to work with his squad — as captain Steven Gerrard praised him as the man he feels has allowed him to play his best football.

Roy Hodgson looks set to experiment with his line-up against Denmark in March even though defeat would make him the only England manager in history to lose three successive home games.

China completed an unprecedented clean sweep of gold medals to end their controversial London 2012 tournament with an emphatic statement.

THE Republic’s Under 17s will be desperate to avoid a Greek tragedy as they strive for the one qualifying place for May’s UEFA Championship finals this week in Alexandropolis.

Celtic midfielder Aiden McGeady is aiming to seal a permanent place in the Republic of Ireland starting line-up after a superb performance in the 4-0 win over Denmark.

Denmark 0 Republic of Ireland 4

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan believes Thomas Gravesen will be unaffected by the unsavoury chants which could come from his fellow countrymen in tonight’s Champions League clash with FC Copenhagen.

CAL BOWDLER believes Ireland has what it takes to reach European basketball’s elite with victory in Denmark tomorrow.

Czech Republic 3 Denmark 0

Czech Republic coach Karel Bruckner claimed his team did not want to be given the tag of tournament favourites as they prepare for tomorrow’s Euro 2004 quarter-final with Denmark at the Estadio do Dragao.

All the latest from Portugal.

Sven-Goran Eriksson is confident that England’s lethal weapon Michael Owen and key midfielder Paul Scholes will be fit to face Brazil in Friday’s World Cup quarter-final clash with Brazil in Shizuoka on Friday.

Denmark striker Jon Dahl Tomasson believes England are not good enough to win the World Cup and that he is sure Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side will get knocked out in the quarter-finals.

Uruguay 0, Denmark 1 (latest)

Damien Duff was paid the highest of accolades today when Robbie Keane put him in the same bracket as Ryan Giggs and Harry Kewell.