Wales could give us a dig-out

SOCCER:The two wins at Croke Park back in March have been enough to sustain the Republic of Ireland's remote hopes of qualification for next summer's European Championships, but Steve Staunton and his players must now look to others for that most Irish of gestures - a dig-out - if what currently looks to be a pipedream is to be reclassified as a more serious prospect over the next few days.

With Germany set to overrun San Marino this evening in Nuremberg, the Irish manager's eyes will be firmly fixed on this afternoon's encounter between Wales and the Czech Republic in Cardiff.

Not for the first time in this campaign, John Toshack is billing the game as a "must-win" for his Welsh side, although the reality is that the prospect of his side making it to Switzerland and Austria next year would become only fractionally less unlikely if they took all three points this time out.

Having named Craig Bellamy as his captain the Liverpool star is set to start with a sweeper, Danny Gabbidon, who missed the second half of the season through injury, a 20-year-old goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, who has never played competitively at this level before, and a couple of the least impressive performers from the Dublin defeat.

Tottenham recruit Gareth Bale misses the game through injury.

Still, Toshack insists the Czechs look vulnerable after a couple of poor performances and Staunton may be encouraged by the fact the hosts, who will also be hoping to send Ryan Giggs into retirement on something of a high note, have not publicly thrown in the towel yet.

"Obviously, they have to be clear favourites," says Toshack, "but I have to say I think they are making hard work of this group. I saw them in Bratislava and they were really good. But they lost at home to the Germans and were booed off the field four days later in their last match against Cyprus when they hung on to a scrappy goal.

"They drew in Dublin and were fortunate against us. So maybe their campaign is not going as well as they would have liked either."

Relatively speaking, he may be right, but the Czechs, who may actually be rather pleased by the prospect of the Welsh actively pursuing a victory, still appear to be in a strong position both to win today and to take one of Group D's two automatic qualification spots.

While the Irish and Slovaks must visit the Czech capital in the autumn, Karel Bruckner's travel itinerary consists of trips to Germany and two of the group's weakest nations, Cyprus and San Marino. The Cypriots have, of course, beaten Ireland and drawn with the Germans at home, but having been unfortunate to lose to Slovakia, it would be no great surprise if their resolve now deserted them.

Similarly, Slovakia's run-in looks more attractive than Ireland's as a result of which they too look well placed to finish ahead of the Irish.

They would be third in the table already were the results of San Marino, who everybody would expect to beat twice, expunged for they have yet to play the minnows either home or away.

After Nuremberg next week, there are home games against Ireland, Wales and San Marino to look forward to before the campaign is wrapped up with visits to Prague and the part-timers of the tiny mountain state.

In view of this and in the wake of Germany's defeat of the Czechs a couple of months back, the Republic's cause would now be best served, it seems, by Joachim Low's side running away with first place in the group.

The Germans play Slovakia in Hamburg on Wednesday when anything other than a victory for the home side would be a significant surprise and, realistically, an unwelcome blow for the Ireland manager.

Low is without the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Olivier Neuville for his side's two outings, but the Slovaks - who lack the depth of their rivals but who need to substantially improve on their performance in Dublin merely to avoid a hefty defeat - are also missing injured regulars Marek Mintal, Martin Jakubko and Szilard Nemeth.

The look of the competition's other qualification groups could well be significantly reshaped over the coming five days too.

England, already fourth in Group E, will be five points adrift of top spot this evening if Croatia win in Estonia, as Steve McClaren's side must do themselves on Wednesday if the former Middlesbrough coach is to retain any sort of secure grip on his job.

New Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington will see his side's status as Group F leaders snatched away if Sweden win in Denmark.