Shay Given has said that he is 100% fit and is raring to take on Spain.
The Lifford man says Ireland have every chance to put one over on the group favourites and will be going out to exploit their weaknesses.
Shay told The Irish Times that he determined to make amends, not just for the 3-1 defeat to Croatia, but also for that World Cup defeat a decade ago.
“Yeah, we can hurt them, hopefully. We certainly won’t be trying to get everybody behind the ball,” he says.
“We’ll try and cause them some problems as well. One of the biggest things will probably be set-pieces. They’re renowned for maybe not being the biggest team in the competition and we’ve got some big players in our team, so if we get some of the right deliveries in there, as we saw against Croatia with the goal we scored, we’ve got the players who can get onto balls in the box.
“We hope this situation will bring the best out of us – I can only tell you on Thursday night or Friday morning. Sometimes in the past when everyone has given up on us we’ve come out fighting and proved that we’re a decent team and we have to do that again.”
A lot has been made of Shay’s fitness before the opening game with many still questioning if he was completely fit after he saw here goals go past him.
The 36-year-old, though, is adamant that his performance during the game itself was in no way hindered by any lack of fitness.
“Ideally I’d have liked to have trained more over the last couple of weeks, but it’s fine,” he says. “Did it affect me? Not really, no; I wouldn’t have played if I wasn’t 100 per cent, so I was fine.
“The first goal I just saw a bit late. There were a couple of the lads sort of blocking my view and by the time I saw it I didn’t react quick enough or get enough to take it around the post. The third goal has just hit me smack on the forehead. It probably would have been better if I hadn’t dived, it might have just come out, but it’s easy in hindsight to say that. You’ve got to try and save the shot. There’s nothing you can do.”
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