Perseveran ce the key as Ireland seek to buck odds once more

Being the less fancied team in tomorrow's match against Spain at Suwon is one thing, but after the initial hype surrounding Ireland's Group E success back in Japan just a few days ago, Mick McCarthy and his players were again back to coping with life as World Cup nobodies here in South Korea yesterday.

They weren't alone. While Germany, Italy and Spain, of course, were all quietly busying themselves with preparations for their respective second-round games, just short of 50 million South Koreans rather loudly went off their collective rocker as a team that had never won a World Cup finals match in five previous tournaments scored their second victory in 11 days to top Group D and, a little cruelly, send Portugal's golden generation prematurely packing once again.

For the Irish squad, there was the added problem of attempting to get some rest in a hotel situated around 100 metres from a square where, from lunchtime on, local supporters gathered to watch the eight-hour free concert that preceded the screening of the biggest game in Korean football history on a collection of very big screens.

By kick-off time, at 8.30 last night local time, a crowd estimated at 150,000 - almost every one of whom wore a scarlet T-shirt bearing the instruction "Be the Reds" - had squeezed their way into a space the size of St Stephen's Green. Many more had to settle for places in the crowded streets leading away in every direction.

Just short of two hours later, the place was bedlam as ecstatic fans celebrated a win that earns their team a meeting with Italy next Tuesday. Another half an hour on, and thousands of delighted locals could be seen pitching in with the clean-up operation before leaving and heading for home. Quite a few, though, preferred to stay on in order to savour the moment and in the early hours their singing was still clearly audible from where the Irish players were supposed to be sleeping.

If the noise outside was bothering McCarthy when, earlier in the day, he spoke about his side's prospects against Spain tomorrow, then the Ireland manager certainly wasn't showing it. Having been reunited with his good humour since Thursday, he laughed at the idea of attempting to complain and playfully suggested he might be reduced to leaning out his bedroom window and shouting at the locals to keep the noise down.

When asked about reports from home of equally wild scenes up and down the country (without the cleaning up, of course), he recalled a Con Houlihan line about missing the World Cup because he had been in Italy. "We're where we want to be, though," he said, "and we still want to be here after Sunday."

To achieve that, they will have to eliminate a Spanish side that, uncharacteristically, has been one of the few big-name teams to live up to its billing through the group stages. Few neutrals give Ireland much hope and the history books certainly provide little enough comfort with just two Irish wins in 13 competitive meetings between these two sides - and both of those the result of Spanish own-goals.

If the statistic is to be improved to three in 14, then McCarthy needs easily the biggest performance his players have produced at this World Cup. A first half like the one against either Saudi Arabia or Cameroon will almost certainly mean conceding goals against a team that has scored nine in three games. But a sustained display of the tenacity and perseverance shown for almost 70 minutes against Germany will give Ireland a shot - and a decent one at that - of once again making it to a World Cup quarter-final.

The fact that Jose Camacho's side has also conceded goals on each of their group outings was held up by McCarthy as one of the few positives going into the game. "You've got to take something from things like that, that and the fact that they threw so many people forward even when there's no pressure on them to win ... there may be opportunities to hit them on the break," he said.

"It's going to be tough, though, very tough," he added. "I've got nothing but respect for Spain, they're a wonderful team, but then I'm sure they're saying nice things about us, too," he continued with a grin. "They'd be foolish not to because I remember when we were getting ready to play against Italy in 1990 and their players were telling anybody who would listen that they were going to turn us over. Then, in the tunnel before the game, I saw 11 very nervous looking Italians who knew they were going to have to beat an Irish side that, for all their talk, could play a bit."

This Irish side, he says, can play a bit more and certainly in attacking terms the team he manages appears capable of posing a greater threat to Spain's defence than the one he played in did to Italy 12 years ago.

If Mark Kinsella and Matt Holland continue to produce the form they have shown in their three previous games, then Ireland are even capable of holding their own against the wonderfully-talented Spanish central midfield of Deportivo's Juan Carlos Valeron and Valencia's Ruben Baraja.

But on the flanks, stronger displays from Ireland's wide midfielders are needed if the dangers posed by Luis Enrique and, most likely, Javi De Pedro, are to be effectively contained.

Once again McCarthy is faced with the dilemma of whether to replace Ian Harte at left back and once again he has avoided giving any hint of what he might do. If his loyalty to the defender was understandable ahead of the Saudi game in which the Irish were certainly not expected to come under much pressure at the back, then it will be harder to fathom after that game with the 24-year-old having struggled once again.

Harte has done much that has been good since becoming a regular in this Ireland team a couple of years back, but he is clearly not having a World Cup to remember, something that McCarthy seems to have realised given that he has taken him off in each of the group games. This time, with Jason McAteer apparently back to full fitness, there is no need to throw somebody as inexperienced as Steven Reid in from the start and so McCarthy may act, moving Gary Kelly to left back and restoring the Sunderland midfielder - who will earn his 50th cap if selected - to his starting line-up. It would be a brave man that would bet on it, though.

While Steve Staunton (thigh) and Robbie Keane (groin) should shake off minor problems by tomorrow to enable McCarthy to name an unchanged side if he so desires, Jose Camacho is certain to swap things around after Wednesday's 3-2 defeat of South Africa. Having made eight changes for that game, it is entirely possible that he will revert entirely to the line-up that started against Paraguay, although Fernando Morientes's two goals in that game should be enough for him to displace Diego Tristan.

Almost certain to return is Fernando Hierro, the versatile 34-year-old from Real Madrid, who will partner the 35-year-old Nadal in central defence. Each is past his best, lacking pace and agility, and against a quick and mobile pairing like Robbie Keane and Damien Duff, they represent what passes for Spain's weak spot. Ireland will have to prove capable of exposing it. If they do, and our own centre backs can frustrate Raul and Morientes at the other end, then Ireland will at the very least prove very tough opponents, who could again find themselves in a penalty shoot-out for a place in the last eight of a World Cup. They are, of course, big ifs, but then, as McCarthy rightly said, even before the Koreans sent the Portuguese home, "there's been too many shocks in football to suggest we can't win this game".

After some of the ones we've had in the past few days, Ireland beating Spain would hardly be worthy of the name.