John OÂ’Shea hopes the Republic of Ireland will bounce back from their humiliating defeat by Cyprus at the weekend with a much-improved performance against the Czech Republic in Dublin on Wednesday.
The Republic squad held an inquest on Sunday morning following the 5-2 thrashing in Limassol, and O’Shea is aware that they will need to salvage something from Wednesday’s match against the Group D leaders – currently nine points clear of Ireland – if they are to have any chance of qualifying for Euro 2008.
"Basically everyone wants to air their views and get it all out. It's good for that to happen when you have a defeat like we did," O'Shea said of the squad meeting.
"There's major disappointment from the result because we know we let ourselves down. It's our worst defeat for a long time, if not ever. We know we really let everyone down. It was a really disappointing performance. We're lucky we have a game on Wednesday where we can put things right."
Meanwhile, Ryan Giggs has yet to recover from his hamstring injury and wonÂ’t be joining up with John ToshackÂ’s beleaguered Welsh squad, who are next to face Cyprus on Wednesday. However, Rio Ferdinand has recovered from the back problem that kept him out of EnglandÂ’s disappointing draw with Macedonia and should start against Croatia in Zagreb, alongside club team-mates Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick.
Four Reds hoping to cap fantastic results on Saturday with further success this week are Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo. FletcherÂ’s Scotland take on Ukraine on Wednesday and Walter SmithÂ’s squad left for Kiev with Sir Alex FergusonÂ’s words of congratulation ringing in their ears, the United manager was one of the first in the home dressing room following the ScotsÂ’ memorable win over France.
Jonny Evans will be aiming to continue his unbeaten international record at home to Latvia this week after Northern IslandÂ’s battling goalless draw away to Denmark this weekend, and Nemanja VidicÂ’s Serbia face Armenia at home after his countryÂ’s win over Denmark, SerbiaÂ’s first home match as a separate nation.
Ronaldo netted twice against Azerbaijan at the weekend and should have scored a hat-trick had his spectacular overhead kick been properly adjudged to have crossed the line by referee Mark Halsey.
France will be going for goals against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday following their shock defeat at Hampden, which could spell a recall for Louis Saha who made a late appearance as a substitute in Glasgow. And finally, Edwin van der Sar will again keep goal for Holland against Albania four days after the NetherlandsÂ’ 1-1 draw with Bulgaria.