While his much less celebrated work off the ball is far too honest to merit ‘a luxury player’ tag — you can understand why Martin O’Neill harbours equally honest reservations about him, writes Liam Mackey.

Mark Twain once beautifully defined an expert as “some guy from outta town”. That being so, the guys and gals whose heads are entirely off the planet must be the greatest experts of them all.

Versailles looks the ideal base for team Ireland. The distance between the hotel and training ground is minimal and there will be no repeat of the suffocating proximity of Sopot four years ago, writes Brendan O’Brien

We are the Boys in Green, the best you’ve ever seen

Martin O’Neill wouldn’t say whether David Meyler will start against Belarus tonight, but the Hull City midfielder will have longer to impress than the last time he effectively auditioned for a current member of the Ireland management team at Turner’s Cross.

It’s been a rocky road, but for Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland it’s about the destination, not the journey.

None of the teams striving to make France in these play-offs really deserve their passage to Euro 2016, writes Brendan O’Brien

Goals change games. Winning goals change perceptions.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

A question for the world champions: Can we play you every week?

For Ireland to get something out of tonight’s game against Germany at the Aviva Stadium will require nothing less than a minor miracle, in my opinion.

Should Poland do Ireland the inestimable favour of eliminating Scotland by beating them in Hampden Park on Thursday night, then Martin O’Neill’s team will be certain of qualifying for a European Championship play-off place, even if they were to suffer successive defeats in their last two group games at home to Germany and away to Poland.

As endgame looms on Ireland’s Euro Group D qualification campaign, Martin O’Neill will be keen to focus today on the players available to him when he announces his provisional squad for the double-header against Germany and Poland.

Young refugees accompanied Bayern Munich players onto the pitch and took centre stage to the applause of 75,000 fans before a Bundesliga game on Saturday.

Gibraltar versus Ireland in Faro last weekend was the first international I’ve attended where the pre-match traffic actually thinned out the closer you got to the ground.

They frustrate and they disappoint. They can display all the get up and go of a moody teenager, but this Republic of Ireland side has at least developed a handy knack of making you smile just when you have all but despaired of them.

Whatever about Ireland’s decline to becoming an outlier of European football, comments by Roy Keane would have us believe it wasn’t avoidable.

Limerick bananas with spider eggs attached, the Sinn Féin MEP convicted of speeding, an insight into Roy Keane's management style, a maths quiz and a new Ed Sheeran song. These are some of the latest and most read news on irishexaminer.com this lunchtime

Ireland’s 100-cap soccer hero of Gelsenkirchen, John O’Shea, has reason to smile, with accumulated profits at his firm jumping to €1.3m last year.

As the good Dr Thompson once put it: Well, yes, and here we go again.

After the rugby heroics on Saturday, Martin O’Neill last night admitted that his Irish team have "a lot to live up to" as they begin a week of preparations ahead of the meeting with Poland next Sunday.

Aiden McGeady, John O’Shea and Jon Walters are all in the running for the ‘Three’ FAI Senior International Player Of The Year award.

HELLO, good evening and welcome.

Jose Mourinho will not compare his current Chelsea side to that of his first reign at Stamford Bridge because they have yet to back up their ability with trophies.

Schalke 0 Chelsea 5

Roberto Di Matteo played down the talk of a revenge mission as Chelsea visited Gelsenkirchen to take on his Schalke side - but it was embarrassment that greeted the Italian as the Blues eased into the knockout stages of the Champions League tonight.

Jose Mourinho insists he is not motivated by the thought of matching Roberto Di Matteo’s achievement of winning the Champions League with Chelsea.

Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea versus Schalke on Tuesday night should not be billed as a clash between him and his opposite number Roberto Di Matteo.

And so it seems we have to talk about Roy – again.

And then, finally, talk of a football match broke out — although not before John O’Shea too was canvassed for his opinion on the man of the hour and replied he was only too happy to echo Martin O’Neill’s sentiments about how "brilliant" it was for the players to have Roy Keane as part of the Irish management team.

EURO 2016 GROUP D QUALIFIER:

So much for ‘home’ comforts.

Somebody had to draw the short straw.

Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill has warned his players to beware of Scotland striker Steven Fletcher as they attempt to maintain their Euro 2016 momentum.

David Forde reflects on the sometimes hard road he’s travelled to be Ireland’s No. 1 in Glasgow tonight