It’s a team sport, but the Republic of Ireland will be worrying about one Welsh player in particular.
Keeping Gareth Bale quiet will be no mean feat, and the task has been made much more difficulty with Ciaran Clark and Shane Duffy being ruled out with injury.
The Boys In Green may be depleted in terms of numbers and talent, but what won’t be affected will be their passion and desire to get the victory on home territory. You’ll need a lot of the latter in order to secure a win while an in-form Bale is on the pitch.
This may cause some debate @ScrewfixIreland https://t.co/pxXR14lLA4
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 23, 2017
You’ll also need a gameplan, and Stephen Ward revealed that the Irish have just that. Their chosen method to slay the top dragon – don’t let it breathe and cut off its supply.
“He’s obviously one of the best players in the world but I think that we just have to try as a unit, not to let him have time on the ball. We need to get close, get tight, make it uncomfortable for him, but I’m sure there will be times in the game where he will have an effect. We just need to try to keep it to a minimum.”
“We are going to try to try and nullify him, try to stop the service in to him and when he does get it, get as close as we can, because you cannot afford to give a player of that ability too much space and too much time as you know he will hurt you.”
