Denmark assume the Republic of Ireland will have to play a different sort of game against them in the second leg of their World Cup play-off, that they will have to open up, expand and attack. The Danes believe they will be easier to beat as a result. They are likely to be disappointed.


Ireland do not feel the need to impress anyone with the quality of their football, they are not seeking admiring glances from the opposition, they are not even particularly interested in praise. They are focused on the job and the prize at the end of it. The result is all that matters, getting to the World Cup is all that concerns them. Everything else is largely irrelevant.


This is Martin O’Neill’s Ireland, pragmatic, dogmatic, yet still capable of magical results when they need them, as Germany,cheap wholesale jordans, Italy, Austria and Wales have discovered.


They ground Denmark into submission on Copenhagen, rarely bothering to attack, so focused where they on protecting their own goal. It suffocated the game as a spectacle,http://power-shoot.cba.pl/index.php?site=forum_topic&topic=11262cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg, but ensures they go into the second leg with a real chance of reaching their first World Cup for 16 years.


There are plenty of accusations that can be thrown at them for their lack of ambition, yet Ireland still came close to snatching an away goal. This is what Ireland do,cheap jordan shoes, this is how they secured a play-off place and they will not change,cheap real jordans, not now. Not when so much is at stake. They will not be lured into playing the sort of game Denmark want them to play.


“It was a difficult night because they’re a good team,” said Brighton centre-back Shane Duffy. “It was scruffy and ugly, maybe we could have put our foot on the ball a bit more, but we were solid.









Ireland centre-back Shane Duffy has admitted that Saturday's game was 'difficult'

Credit: Getty Images







“I thought they were good, we defended well. Yeah, it was a difficult night, but we’re satisfied we didn’t lose the game, kept a clean sheet and we take it back to Dublin now.


“It’s going to be another tough night on Tuesday, but nothing we haven’t come up against before. We’ll go in with the same game plan obviously, we’ll be hard to beat. We’ll be disciplined, we know we can score goals, we’re at home... we’ve still got to respect them, they’ve got players who can cut you open, we’ve got to concentrate and that’s what we’ll do.


“You can’t get ahead of yourselves and go all guns blazing and lose the match early on, we’ve got to soak up their pressure. I’m quite confident they won’t score in Dublin and when the time is right, we’ll get a goal.”







That has not stopped the former Arsenal, Sunderland and Birmingham City striker, Nicklas Bendtner arguing the second leg will take Ireland’s main strength away from them. Then again, it is not the first time Bendtner, who is winding down his once promising career with Norwegian champions Rosenborg, has misread a situation.


“Maybe we thought they would come a little bit more out of the blocks,” said Bendtner, who has lost his place in Denmark’s starting XI after disappointing spells at Juventus, Wolfsburg and Nottingham Forest. “We thought they would attack more in numbers than just kick the ball away and hope to hit a player.









Nicklas Bendtner expects a 'different match' in the second leg of the World Cup play-off

Credit: Getty Images







“But they defended with their lives, like we have seen. We had three good chances, maybe we could have done better on some of them. But they defended really well. They were strong and together. So, we have to match that again away from home, take our chance and hopefully score a goal.


“I think it will be a different match. They know that they can’t play a match where they have to stay so deep. They know they have to come out and try to score. They can’t play a game of that importance for zero-zero. It’s not possible. I think it’s going to be a little bit more open, will also allow us to get more space. It will be a more interesting match.”


O’Neill will not be swayed by that. After all, Denmark also need to score and they are just as desperate to get to Russia. Like a high-stakes poker game, it could well be down to who loses nerve first and leaves themselves vulnerable.





Old habits clearly die hard for former F1 driver Jenson Button, who has found himself disqualified from a triathlon for speeding during the bike stage.


The 2009 Formula One world champion finished third in the 35-39 category of the World 70.3 Ironman Triathlon Championships in California, which according to Button was enough to qualify him for the world championships.


However,cheap authentic jordans, going too fast through a 'slow zone' during the bicycle stage saw the Briton – as well as several other competitors – come a cropper.


The former McLaren driver,http://leonardo.zsme.pl/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=0cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg,cheap air jordans, who has began a sabbatical at ...end of the 2016 F1 season, is an experienced triathlete though one thinks he might have been more likely to slow down at the correct moment if the organisers had flown some of the yellow flags more familiar to motor racing.


In a post on his Instagram account after the event, Button said: "Well that was a pretty interesting 70.3 Ironman!





"Swim went well then I jumped on my awesome new bike to find that I hadn't charged the battery for the gears so I was stuck in the toughest gear with 900meters of climbing.


"Ran a 1hr23min off the bike which I was pretty happy with, finished 3rd in age group so qualified for the World champs only to be disqualified for speeding in a go slow zone."









Button celebrates winning the F1 world title in 2009

Credit: BRUNO DOMINGOS/Reuters









The 15-time Grand Prix winner remained sanguine about his punishment this time around, though.


"Ah well onto the next one!"


Button took up triathlons as a way to raise his fitness levels midway though his Formula One career, and has since set up the Jenson Button Trust Triathlon to help support his chosen charitable causes,cheap jordans free shipping.


The 37-year-old,jordans for cheap, who has made the third-highest number of Grand Prix starts (305) in F1 history, still has an option with McLaren-Honda to return to drive in 2018 – though this current contract situation was agreed with Ron Dennis,http://oforyou.com/jforum/posts/list/0/26931.page#30646cheapjordanshoesfreeshipping.com/bolg,cheap jordans for sale, who has since been ousted as M...irman and chief executive.









Button seemed more than happy to be leaving F1 at the end of 2016 and few expect to see him return to a full-time race seat

Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty







Speaking on the announcement of his sabbatical, in September 2016, Button said: "To be clear, I’m very definitely not retiring.


"I’m contracted for both 2017 and 2018, I intend to work hard on car-development, and I’m sure I’ll get behind the wheel of the new car at some point."


The new MCL32 McLaren-...een a huge disappointment so far in 2017, perhaps vindicating Button's decision to take a break.


But with speculation growing over the future of star driver Fernando Alonso, who is fast losing patience with the team, Button's service could well be required come next season.


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