IRELAND CAN BLOW the race for World Cup qualification wide open by beating Austria on Tuesday night, John O’Shea said.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s side kept in touch at the business end of Group C with a hard-earned draw in Sweden, leaving them one point adrift in the battle for second place.

But they cannot afford to be reckless as they go in search of the win they badly need to follow up on Friday’s 0-0.

Austria proved that they will be no pushovers as they swatted aside the Faroe Islands, thumping the minnows 6-0 in Vienna to join Ireland in the hunt on seven points.

That was as clear a warning as O’Shea and his team-mates needed but the defender knows that as the home side, they will have to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

“There’s a good positive atmosphere but we’re fully aware of the dangers we face against Austria,” O’Shea said.

“The job is only half done. Four points was the target before the two games I suppose and if we can do that after the game on Tuesday night, we’ll be very pleased. Believe me, we’re not taking Austria lightly.

“We have three home games in a row now so it’s really back in our court if we can take advantage of that. The confidence should have grown from the other night and we can look forward to a big game at the Aviva but also a tough game as well.

If we can get on the front foot like we did against Sweden, and have the pressing of a cohesive unit like we did the other night and stop Austria playing, then we can build our attacks from there.

Let’s wait and see how they approach the game as well. It will be on us as the home side but we’re not going to be silly and go gung-ho because they’ve got lots of attacking threats.

Ireland are without captain Robbie Keane who was ruled out of the squad earlier today with a calf injury, paving the way for Kevin Doyle’s recall from the standby list.

The news gives Trapattoni more food for thought as he looks improve on an attacking display which saw Ireland fail to register a single shot on target on Friday.

“We got ourselves into some great positions,” O’Shea said. “Our final ball a couple of times, we either overhit it or picked out the wrong pass so that’s something we’ll be working on. We know the quality we have in the team and the goals that we have.”

With Keane out, Shane Long may be the man looked to as Ireland’s main threat going forward and O’Shea backed the West Brom striker to fire after drawing a blank in Sweden.

Longy was unlucky that one time. He really sent the defender onto the ground and the ball just hopped up unfortunately. He connected with it lovely. He must have thought he was back playing for Tipperary.

Fingers crossed, if the manager does select him to start the game, he’ll cause Austria lots of problems.

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