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Boys in Green defender believes that his team can defeat La Roja if they remain disciplined and have the aid of Lady Luck

Ireland defender John O'Shea has suggested that the Boys in Green are keen to prove that they are worthy of their place at Euro 2012 in their  game against Spain but stresses that they will need a bit of luck.

"Look, you are coming to an elite competition, the cream of Europe," said O'Shea. "And you have a chance to play against some of the best players in the world, like Spain, who have proved it."

He added: "The have won the European Championships, they have won the World Cup, so they have proven how good they are.

"We have got the chance to show our stuff against them. What more is there to look forward to than a game like that? That's the reason you play football and why you look forward to going to training every day."

The defender believes that Ireland can defeat the reigning World and European champions, but only if they are lucky. Spain began their Euro 2012 campaign with a draw against Italy and are hot favourites to earn the three points against the Irish.

"We can beat Spain," said O'Shea. "But we are going to need a lot of luck along the way and we are going to have to play better too."

The Sunderland utility ma also said that he could not enjoy the tournament because of how the opening game went and looked to the Spain game as an opportunity to atone for the 3-1 loss to the Croats.

"You can't enjoy it when you are not winning football matches, unfortunately," said the 31-year-old. "If we get a positive result against Spain, that will put a different complexion on it."

He continued: "We will analyse the game against Italy from a few days ago. We know they have some fantastic players, but we can cause them some problems.

"We are going to have to keep our shape. The team shape is going to be so important against Spain because they can cut you open. Staying with the runners, not following the ball with the one-twos, is a massive thing."

He added: "We have done it in the past against the top teams and were good enough to get results, and we will have to do that again.

"Our backs will be against the wall for probably the majority of the game, but that's normally when we come out and shine," concluded O'Shea.

Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland meet Group C rivals Spain in Gdansk on Thursday June 14.