Our only hope is to have a go at the Germans

Euro 2008 qualifier/Germany v Republic of Ireland: I happened upon the Stuttgart-bound Green Army at Dublin Airport yesterday morning. Needless to say, we got talking about tonight's game, but I think my pleas for the supporters to be realistic about the game and this qualifying campaign, not to have high expectations, fell on deaf ears.

That's the way supporters are: hope springs eternal. But in my heart of hearts I don't see us taking anything from the game, and I'm struggling to see us qualifying from the group.

When we beat Sweden in Stan's first game everyone, as usual, went overboard: euphoria. When we lost to Holland so badly the reaction was the other extreme: gloom and doom. As I said then, the truth lies somewhere in between: we are neither as good as we looked against Sweden nor as poor as we were against the Dutch.

What we have is a squad that needs to be developed, and, for once, to be fair to the Football Association of Ireland, they recognised that fact when they gave Stan a four-year contract. Even they seemed to acknowledge there is just a real lack of quality in this squad, apart from two or three obvious exceptions, and what we have to hope is that the younger players coming through - the likes of Aiden McGeady, Kevin Doyle, Stephen Elliott, Stephen Ireland and Alan O'Brien - develop into the players we desperately need them to be.

But that will take time, so I genuinely don't think qualification for these European Championships is a realistic target; the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is really what we should be aiming for. The public won't like it, but they have to take it on the chin.

When you look around different areas of the team you see that shortage of quality. We don't know yet who will play in the centre of midfield tonight, possibly John O'Shea and Stephen Reid, although Graham Kavanagh and Kevin Kilbane are options too, but whatever combination Stan goes for you simply cannot say we have a midfield pairing of genuine international quality. Reid and O'Shea have the legs, they'll work tirelessly, but do they really have the ability to get the ball down and play? I'm not sure.

At the back you have to worry, too, about Andy O'Brien's lack of football this season and his failure to get a move before the transfer window closed. The prospect of him playing very little at Portsmouth in the coming months has to be a worry for Stan, especially considering how short we are of players in that position.

The preparations, of course, haven't been ideal, with Kilbane, Kavanagh, Liam Miller and Jonathan Douglas having to sort out their club futures. It's completely daft that the window closing clashed with international duty like this. But it can't be used as an excuse; if anything these players will be happier now that their club situations are sorted out.

I would have thought Stan anticipated this happening with some of the squad so I'd imagine team shape and all of that would have been discussed earlier in the week.

Should Stan start with McGeady on the right and Damien Duff on the left tonight then that will be a sign he wants the players to take Germany on, to have a right go at them, which I think is precisely the right approach to take.

I know it was a different team then but our best performance in recent years was against France in Paris, we had a go at them and got our rewards. We're simply not good enough to sit back and shut up shop; we just don't have the players to do that.

Equally, Germany are at their best going forward, as they showed in the World Cup, and since they've lost four, possibly five, of their defenders from that squad you would have to assume any weaknesses they displayed at the back during the summer will not be resolved. Their full backs, particularly Philipp Lahm, are happiest attacking. The presence of McGeady and Duff would, at least, make them think twice about rampaging forward.

Costa Rica, Poland, Sweden - none of them had a real go at Germany in the World Cup and they paid the price. I believe our only hope of taking something from tonight's game is if we go at them, test that defence of theirs, play at a high tempo, give them something to think about.

The fact is we rarely, if ever, let ourselves down in these type of games. We're usually difficult to beat, but we have to play better than we have done in a long time if we're going to get anything tonight - and, beyond that, if we are to have any hope of qualifying. To be even close we need to have all our best players fully fit, the team has to play above itself, game in, game out, and the younger players need to develop fast.

We live in hope, but I just don't expect even a point tonight.

And my gut feeling remains: qualification for South Africa is a more realistic target for this squad.