Martin O’Neill: ‘We know it’s going to be a fight to the death’

If Martin O’Neill had been planning to deliver a mission statement to sum up why he believes the going will be heavy as well as hot when Ireland and Georgia lock horns in Tbilisi today, he could hardly have prepared the ground better than did the obliging local journalist who began yesterday’s pre-match press conference in the Dinamo Arena first by reminding the manager that the Irish have an eight-zero record against his national team and then by asking how “easy” did he think it would be for the visitors to make it nine out of nine.

“I think it’s going to be a very difficult game for us and the record will not play any part in it whatsoever,” O’Neill crisply replied. “Despite the good record that the Republic of Ireland have against Georgia in competitive games and friendly matches, I don’t think that has any bearing on this game. I think it’s a very difficult game for the reasons I’ll give you. Georgia could easily have beaten Serbia here, they played very well against us in the first half of the match in Dublin and they played exceptionally well against Wales.

“So Georgia will probably feel they should have more points on the board. And for all of those reasons, and the fact that this is a competitive World Cup qualifying game, this is a very difficult game for us. But we’re hoping it will be a difficult game for Georgia also.”