SOCCER:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland can ill afford to have a collective Macedonia in Skopje tonight if they are serious about qualifying from an extremely tight European Championship Group B. The draw here 12 years ago ultimately cost them a place at the 2000 finals in Belgium and the Netherlands and another slip-up could prove as calamitous.

Getting a point shouldn’t be beyond the Irish but the Macedonians should actually be beatable and the real question is whether the current team can do what their predecessors twice failed to; play well and take all three points.

Their hosts have not won a competitive game here in a couple of years – they have drawn quite a few – and the players Mirsad Jonuz sought to add to his squad to improve on their performance in Dublin have all cried off injured.

The Irish will hardly be complacent, although Robbie Keane, who took a full part in last night’s training session, insists they should not become hung up on failures that must, to most of the current squad, seem like ancient history.

“The last game was a long time ago,” says the only survivor of the draw in 1999, “so we don’t read too much into that. We know what they are about; we’ve played against them not long ago.

“By no means will it be an easy game; it’s going to be difficult playing in their backyard. But we’re going into this game with a lot of confidence, coming back in off the back of two good wins.”

The captain insists he will start this evening despite the groin strain that forced him to pull out of training midway through the session on Thursday, although Giovanni Trapattoni sounded less certain, observing only that he hopes the Dubliner will play.

Alongside him will be Simon Cox, the West Brom striker, who is handed his first competitive international start in preference to Shane Long.

The switch, it was acknowledged at yesterday’s pre-match press conference, should mean a change in approach by the Irish who will not really have the sort of target up front on which the team usually relies for an outlet.

“We’re not the biggest of players,” admitted Keane, who has missed just two competitive games in the past six years. “We’ll probably have to get it in to feet rather than chipping the balls into us and trying to win headers. We’ll have to get the ball down and play, and get it behind them, which myself and Cox can do quite well, so that’s what we’ll try to do tomorrow.”

It’s an appealing prospect and it will be interesting to see how long Trapattoni’s men can stick to their guns if things don’t go to plan. Even if they do, of course, it might be tempting for the Irish to sit back, defend a lead and hoof it long whenever the opportunity arises, most likely after bringing on the Reading striker early in the second half, but it’s really not the most compelling of game plans.

It might prove riskier than usual given the absence of Richard Dunne from the heart of the Irish defence. Darren O’Dea will try to fill in for the Aston Villa defender while Stephen Kelly comes in at right-back, replacing John O’Shea who moves inside to the centre.

Kelly, said Trapattoni, gets the nod over Paul McShane in part because he has more pace, to counter the threat of Bajram Fetai, a quick winger who had been drafted in specifically to get at the Hull full-back. But even as the manager explained this, the Macedonian translator sitting a few feet to his right politely mentioned that Fetai is injured.

The Macedonians, though, are a little more than one-trick ponies. Goran Pandev might be their biggest star but he gets a hard time in these parts for the high proportion of his international goals – 23 in 58 appearances – that come against weak opponents or in friendlies. Still, he can be a major threat and having seen little action for Inter of late prior to an impressive cameo in the Italian Cup final, he might just be up for it tonight.

Left-back Goran Popov could miss out with a groin strain, in which case Parma’s highly-rated teenager Stefan Ristovski may debut, while Ivan Trickovski, comfortably their best player in Dublin, is fit and having forced a couple of decent saves from Keiren Westwood, will fancy his chances of stretching a makeshift defence and testing Shay Given.

The threat posed by hosts, who have nothing other than pride to play for, will not, of course, be anything like as potent if the Irish can show composure coming out of defence and retain possession a little more effectively in midfield.

The return of Keith Andrews alongside Glenn Whelan is welcome, while Trapattoni will hope wide men Aiden McGeady and Stephen Hunt can generate chances, either from play or winning free kicks, for the front men.

How they interact in this, their first competitive game together, will be crucial to Ireland’s chances of actually winning the game.

It will be an interesting night and whether it consigns the host nation’s place in the big book of Irish football’s euphemisms, we can only wait and see.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Manchester City); Kelly (Fulham), O’Shea (Manchester United), O’Dea (Celtic), Kilbane (Huddersfield); Hunt (Wolves), Andrews (Blackburn), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Spartak Moscow); Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Cox (West Brom).

MACEDONIA (probable): Nuredinovski; Ristovski, Shikov, Noveski, Grncarov; Shumulikoski, Demiri, Despotovski; Naumoski, Pandev, Trickovski.

Referee: Florian Meyer (Germany).