Ray Houghton: Ireland can kill off Austria in Vienna
Martin O’Neill’s men have failed to impress in the qualifying campaign so far but have still managed to pick up seven points from three games. In contrast, Austria have already dropped five points and face an uphill battle to make it to Russia.
The stakes, therefore, will be high come November 12.
“We’re going away in our next game against Austria,” Houghton told 2fm’s Game On. “If we were to pick up anything there it would be very difficult for them to qualify from that position, because they’ve dropped two against Wales, three against Serbia.
“It’s very tough from their point of view.”
Ireland may not have entirely convinced until this point but Houghton prefers to focus on the results.
“The points tally is phenomenal,” he said.
“The point we got against Serbia (in the 2-2 draw) is going to be absolutely huge. That’s a massive point, look what they’ve done since [beating Austria and Moldova).
“I see them being the ones that everyone else is trying to beat because I think they’ve probably got the strongest squad.
“From our point of view, we’ve seven points from the first three games, two of them have been away from home.
“So we’ve just got to try and keep our focus.”
Houghton believes Ireland’s football will improve and believes the team should be cut some slack given they are going through a transitional period
“Of course we want to play better football,” he said.
“The players want to play better than they are at the moment but with some of the injuries we’ve had, some of the changes, we’ve just got to try to patch things up and work through matches and get results and that’s what they’ve done so far.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, the more games that we play if we get everyone back fit and well, we’ll start to produce better football. It will come in stages.
“Remember, there’s a transition within the Republic of Ireland international team.”
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