Ireland can’t be complacent, says Roy Keane

Given that Gibraltar have shipped 34 goals in six games and can’t even claim proper home advantage in these European Championship qualifiers, it’s fair to say that, balmy weather conditions apart, Ireland won’t exactly be walking into a footballing hothouse in the Estadio Algarve on Friday night.

More likely, it will be a kind of sleepy, vaguely surreal setting as competitive internationals go but, while acknowledging that this is hardly a normal away game, Roy Keane insists that Ireland will not be lulled into a false sense of security against the group whipping boys.

“I think it can happen,” he concedes, “but we have a lot of experience in the group, a lot of experience, the Robbie Keanes, the Shay Givens, the John O’Sheas, these boys. You said a half empty stadium but whether you’re playing in front of 80,000 or 90,000 or one man and his dog, you have to do things properly and, whatever the atmosphere may be, you have to be professional, do a good job and make it an atmosphere.