Martin O'Neill challenges Republic of Ireland to make history with Denmark standing between them and World Cup

Martin O’Neill warned his Ireland players that they “don’t want to die wondering what it’s like to play in a World Cup”, challenging them to make history ahead of the 2018 World Cup play-off first leg against Denmark in Copenhagen on Saturday.

The Irish boss also praised the “inner self-belief” of his squad and the spirit that has taken them this far, as they aim to qualify for what just be a fourth ever World Cup, and first since 2002.

Even though a Christian Eriksen-fired Denmark have been favourites for the game and seeds, O’Neill also mentioned how his side had overcome adversity in the past with a series of big wins. In his time, Ireland have beaten Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Austria and Wales in genuinely consequential games.

“These are tough games for us,” the Irish boss said. “We’ve got ourselves into this position now and as I’ve just mentioned a moment ago, you don’t want to die wondering what it’s like to play in a World Cup. Through experience the players have matured, I think there's a good belief in the camp that maybe didn't exist a couple of seasons ago. An inner self belief, it's not one that is flaunted, an inner self belief that we can come out and compete.

"We know we must compete for everything at every given minute and while every single international side has limitations somewhat, we are going to try and stay as strong as we possibly can, play to our strengths which is the most important thing, it's something we do, and use that experience we've had to some good effect and that's what we're going to try and do.

“Generally, we have been up against it most of the time in last couple of years. The Euros group was a pretty difficult one and we managed to come through that through the play-offs. This was even more difficult because only the top side would go through automatically. We were fourth seed, but we have managed to make it so far and we have had some big battles.

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“We had to win in Wales – we had to win the last two games to manage that, and we take our position here on merit, that’s the point, so we have got to go again.I don’t think for one minute, in all seriousness, the players think that this game is anything but difficult, of course it is, really difficult.

“They’ve [Denmark] got some excellent players who can cause a lot of problems - Eriksen has been playing fantastic football now for maybe 16 months, but he's not only Danish player who can play. They have got some really good players – but so have we. We are going to try to play to our strengths – we are going to try to play strongly, we're going to have to be able to defend properly when it comes to it and we are going to have to take our chances.

“That's what we are going to have to do and over the two legs, we will give ourselves a chance, we hope.”

When it was put to Robbie Brady that the Danes had spoken about how they must “break” Ireland’s spirit, the midfielder said: “They can try, but we’ll be ready.”