What to expect from Luxembourg on Saturday
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What to expect from Luxembourg on Saturday

IRELAND PLAY Luxembourg in a World Cup qualifier, and it is a must-win game.

Though they are far from a strong footballing nation, we need to be careful against Luxembourg on Saturday.

While we are at home, the world-renowned Irish fans will obviously not be present because of Covid-19, and the Boys in Green will have to get the job done without their 12th man.

So here's what to expect from Luxembourg.

They played Qatar in a friendly on the same day we were playing against Serbia, and lost 1-0. However, the result doesn't tell the full story, as Luxembourg were playing a lot of good football, and had the majority of the ball on the night.

Before that, they drew 0-0 with Azerbaijan, and lost 2-1 to both Cyprus and Montenegro, having beaten Cyprus shortly beforehand.

So they're not exactly on the best run of form. But come on - neither are we.

They like to play football, and under Stephen Kenny, so do we. But we undeniably have the better players, so we really should be taking the game to them, and allowing our attacking full backs to get forward at every opportunity.

They do seem to have an issue with discipline, picking up three red cards in their last four games. This could be something that Ireland's forwards could aim to capitalise on, and something Kenny and co. will certainly be aware of.

Luckily, they don't have anybody of Dusan Tadic's quality, and hopefully we should have the edge when it comes to personnel.

Midfielder Gerson Rodrigues is their man to watch. The physical Dynamo Kiev player will put himself about, and will definitely look to get stuck into our young, inexperienced midfield. Kenny will need for them to be ready to stand up to him.

Kick-off on Saturday night is 7.45pm.