Ireland will play host to Gibraltar on Friday, a side which only has one competitive game under its belt. Gibraltar were not given a good welcome either when Poland subjected them to a 7-0 defeat in a Group D encounter. Ireland will be definite favourites for the match but manager Martin O'Neill has refused to take his counterparts lightly.
"That's exactly the message to the players," O'Neill said. "You don't want to be taking your eye off the ball. This is the important game for us."
"This is a game we have to win. Obviously, we have to win the game. But Poland found it difficult. They scored a host of goals towards the end of the game."
"They [Poland] said they'd found it difficult and I wasn't sure what they meant until I watched the game. Honestly, Gibraltar did cause a problem or two."
"So this idea that it's just all over? We're expected to win the game, absolutely. And that's why I cannot concentrate on anything else other than the game on Saturday."
Ireland will however be without several key players with Everton duo Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy ruled out of Saturday's fixture. Coleman has not played since suffering a head injury back in September when the toffees played Wolfsburg, McCarthy on the other hand will not be able to participate due to a strained quad muscle.
Goalkeeper Shay Given is also expected to miss out but the Ireland camp is expected to be in a buoyant mood after a good showing against Georgia last time out, a match the Boys in Green won by a 2-1 score line.
Gibraltar on the other hand will have a daunting task to record only their first competitive victory and manager Allen Bula is hopeful that his players will have the belief to pull off a major upset.
"It is going to be a tough test again for my players, especially in a stadium that looks to be packed, but it’s about keeping talking to them, making them believe in themselves," Bula said.
"They've only got 30 seconds to take in the atmosphere and after 30 seconds, they've got to snap out of it."
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