Mick McCarthy: 'If we win the first one, I think we'll win the second'

“We all know it’s hard,” he said yesterday. “But we’ve got to believe we can do it. The first one is the key. If we win the first one, I think we’ll win the second one. We’ll get momentum (and) we’ll win the second one.

If Ireland beat Slovakia in their play-off semi-final next month, Mick McCarthy believes that his team will go on to qualify for the Euro 2020 finals.

While not underestimating the challenge of trying to win back to back away games against the Slovaks and then either Northern Ireland or Bosnia, the manager is confident that victory in the first game will drive Ireland on to victory in the second.