We can do it the Chelsea way, insists O’Shea

Those comparisons with Greece, which mushroomed in both number and volume prior to Ireland’s opener against Croatia, are no longer being made but the example of Chelsea remains a valid one for a team clinging to the precipice of these European Championships.

Like Inter Milan 12 months earlier, the English side succeeded this year in frustrating a clearly superior Barcelona selection which will once again provide the rump of a Spanish team looking to claim a unique hat-trick of major championship titles in the coming weeks.

“The two legs made it a slightly different thing but I think that shape is going to be a crucial factor,” said John O’Shea yesterday. “The way Barcelona can move the ball so quickly, [you can’t just watch] the ball because if you do that the players will just run off you, in behind you with the number of one-twos they play.

“So for the midfield, and even the wide men and attacking players, it’s about not letting players run off you freely.

“That’s going be a key thing because if you can stop that you stop a lot of the through balls in behind the back four, through the back of the midfield too and Chelsea were able to cut that off very well against Barcelona.”

It must, and undoubtedly will again, be pointed out that Ireland are not Chelsea but then neither were Switzerland, who claimed a 1-0 win against Spain in the 2010 World Cup despite statistics which warned they had never before beaten a country that entered that match on a run of three years and 49 matches without defeat.

The fact is that results like Switzerland’s two years ago stand out as much as they do precisely because they occur so rarely but O’Shea dismissed suggestions that Ireland players would be losing sleep ahead of a task of such enormity.

The suspicion – still to be confirmed or disproved — is that Spain are not quite at the same forbidding level which saw them capture the World Cup and European Championship crowns in 2010 and 2008 and Italy’s performance and ability to claim a 1-1 draw against them in Gdansk earlier this week offers further hope to Giovanni Trapattoni and co.

“It was an interesting start when Spain didn’t have an out-and-out striker,” said O’Shea.

“I think the Italians took encouragement from starting out [well] early on and they pressed very well but we’ll go into a lot more detail over the next couple of nights, into the various patterns of the game, but then Spain could come out and play with two strikers against us. You never know, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

They could also play with just the one but then, whatever the personnel, the measure of the test never lessens against the Spanish and Ireland will need to look too at how they can maximise what little possession and few chances are likely to come their way.

After all, the mistakes which contributed to their downfall in Poznan can and should be eradicated. Formulating a system and pattern whereby they can disrupt a side whose own defensive tigerishness is too often underestimated is quite another, especially given their bluntness three days ago

“We know we can cause them problems on the counter-attack,” said O’Shea.

“It’s going to have to be better from us when we’re in possession, especially going forward.

“That’s going to be key because obviously the number of times that we’re going to have the ball in the final third will be important and then there’s set-pieces as well. I think that’s going to be crucial for us.”