Keep your eyes peeled.
There is exactly 116 days until the European Championships kick off, but it’s never too soon to prepare, so we’ve taken a look ahead to what players from Ireland’s group opponents you may be seeing over the next two nights of Champions League football.
The last 16 action gets underway later this evening, and over the course of the next two nights and four games, there are a total of 15 players who may line up against Ireland at some stage of the European championships later this summer for Sweden, Belgium or Italy.
Tuesday:
PSG v Chelsea.
The only Swede we could find playing in the knockout stage of the Champions League is Zlatan Ibrahimovic at PSG.
He is at joined by various Italians on the French champions XI, which includes Marcio Veratti and Thiago Motta, while on the bench is Italian goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.
Chelsea can include Belgians Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard in their starting XI tonight, which is troubling.
Benfica v Zenit St Petersburg.
The Portuguese side lack any internationals an Irish fan may have direct interest in, while the big spending Russia side provide three names of interest.
Belgian defender Nicolas Lombaerts is likely to feature, while Axel Witsel will most likely also get a start in midfield in front of his international colleague.
At left back is also an Italian player that may catch the eye in the form of Domenico Criscito, who is almost as handsome as Paolo Maldini in his prime.
Wednesday:
Gent v Wolfsburg.
The German side who kept Manchester United, Marouane Fellaini and his fantastic hair out of the knock stages don’t feature any internationals from our group opposition.
However, as you would expect from Gent, there is some Belgian interest, including goalkeeper Mats Sels, who will vie with Simon Mignolet for a spot on the bench. Midfielder Sven Kums and striker Laurent Depoitre are also likely to be part of at least the extended Belgian squad for this summer.
Roma v Real Madrid
The Spanish side are killing us with their lack of players to keep an eye on Wednesday, but at least our friends in the Eternal City are keeping the Italian and Belgian end up.
Alessandro Florenzi and Danielle de Rossi are likely to be on the short flight to France this summer for the Azzurri, and if the Serie A side are to pull off a shock, these two men will need to be in top form.
For Belgium Radja Nainggolan is likely to cause us some major bother this summer, so it will be interesting to see how he does against the formidable Real Madrid midfield this week.
