Finnan believes Ireland will get deserved credit

Steve Finnan believes the Republic of Ireland will finally get the credit they now deserve after reaching the last 16 of the World Cup - with their critics silenced en route.

Republic boss Mick McCarthy rounded on his team's snipers following the 3-0 victory over Saudi Arabia at the International Stadium Yokohama last night, a result which confirmed Ireland's place in the second round.

McCarthy has been forced to contend with "the doubters", as he describes them, ever since Ireland were paired with Portugal and Holland in their qualifying campaign.

Right-back Finnan reckons he and the rest of 'the boys in green' have every chance of beating the Spaniards to continue to confound their critics, and certainly respect is now due according to the Fulham star.

"I don't think other countries will be scared of us, but we might get more respect than we have in the past,'' reflected Finnan.

``Certainly with the way we've played we will get a bit more credit, and now we're in the last 16, then who knows what can happen from here. I certainly feel we can progress to the quarter-finals.

"Why not? Look at when we qualified, playing top European teams in Portugal and Holland, and neither Cameroon or Germany could beat us. So there's no reason why we can't put on a good show.

"I know everyone is happy because we have proved a few people wrong, certainly by getting out of the group and picking up five points, which is good when you look at how strong a group it was.

"But there's no danger of us resting on our laurels. We want to put on a decent show against Spain should we meet them.''

The 26-year-old Finnan believes Spain are one of the strongest teams remaining in the tournament, but they will not relish playing an Ireland side which does not know the meaning of the word 'defeat'.

As far as Finnan is concerned, Ireland are not finished with the World Cup as he added: "Going to Korea had been on our minds for the previous few days, and now it looks like we will be facing Spain. There aren't too many teams who have played well in their opening two games and picked up good results, apart from Spain and Brazil, so it's going to be a difficult game if we meet them.

"But we've come away with a lot of credit from the group. We know we're halfway to having a successful tournament and we all hope we can do ourselves justice in the next game.''