‘We believe we can beat Swiss’

THERE weren’t too many smiles on the faces of the Republic of Ireland players as they left the GSP Stadium in Nicosia on Saturday night but Shay Given, for one, was entitled to be pleased with another man of the match performance in which his superb penalty save from Okkas effectively kept his side in World Cup contention.

“I had watched some videos of a guy taking penalties, but it wasn’t him that took it, so that was a great help,” said Given with a grin. “But I was lucky enough to go the right way, and I got a strong enough left hand on it to turn it round the post.”

Still, Given’s relief at getting three points couldn’t disguise his acute awareness of the deficiencies in the team performance. “We didn’t play well, particularly in the first half. We gave the ball away too easily, and we left ourselves very open at the back. But when you don’t play so well, it’s important you try and keep a clean sheet, and we did that.