Robbie Keane: Time For Ireland To Shine

By Andrew Southwick

Robbie Keane has set the bar high for his Republic of Ireland team-mates, and told them to become legends by qualifying for next summer's World Cup.

Ireland face Raymond Domenech's star-studded France at Croke Park on Saturday, with the odds firmly stacked against them.

Even victory at home may not be enough, with a trip to Paris on Wednesday still to come.

Keane though has been around football long enough to know anything is possible.

"The importance of the game and what's at the end of it is massive for everyone associated with it," said Keane.

"There are players who have never been in this situation before, players who play in the Championship who may never have the opportunity they have now.

"Hopefully they will, but possibly never again, you just never know in football.

"It's important we enjoy the occasion, but it's more important that we do ourselves justice.

"Of course, they have players who have played in the Champions League. If you look on paper at the players they have, they have got world-class players all over the pitch and they are fortunate enough to be able to leave players like Patrick Vieira out of the squad.

"We just can't do that, that's the gulf between the two nations.

"But the one thing we do have is desire and commitment, and a team that's desperate to do well and desperate to get to South Africa."

Republic skipper Keane faces some of France's best every week in the Barclays Premier League, and knows just how good they are.

"It would be a bit harsh to name one because they have so many players," he said.

"If you look at people like [Nicolas] Anelka, at the moment in the Premier League, he is flying and doing really well with Chelsea.

"And also [Thierry] Henry - I have been lucky enough to play against him many, many times, and he is obviously a world-class player who is doing fantastically well, so it's very hard to pinpoint just one player.

"We have to be wary of a lot of their players, and I am sure we will be.

"They are obviously the favourites, there's no question about that, but I don't think they are coming over here expecting an easy game by any stretch of the imagination.

"The players they have, a lot of them have played in the Premier League, so they know a lot of the players anyway, so they know it is not going to be an easy game - and they would be wrong if they did think that.

"But we are not too worried what they think, it's about what we do.

"We have to concentrate and focus on everything we do as a group."