Séamus Coleman believes the Republic of Ireland have “a duty” to lift the country by completing the job of qualifying for a World Cup for the first time since 2002.
The Republic visit the Czech Republic on Thursday in a World Cup playoff semi-final that few would have imagined possible after collecting one point from their opening three qualifiers. Having reignited their campaign with two Troy Parrott-inspired wins over Portugal and Hungary in November, however, Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side will take confidence and momentum into their bid to end a 24-year absence from the World Cup.
Playoffs have brought misery for the Republic in the past, from Thierry Henry’s handball for France in 2009 to Denmark’s 5-1 rout in Dublin in 2017, but Coleman insists recent history will be forgotten in Prague and has urged the team to finish the job. A home playoff final against Denmark or North Macedonia awaits the winner of the semi-final at the 19,370-capacity Fortuna Arena.
“The current group are all so young so I don’t think they are dwelling on that hurt too much,” said the Republic and Everton captain of previous playoff defeats. “We are just riding the wave of confidence we’ve got from the last two games. To see how the nation is feeling now is incredible. We’ve got a duty to try and make them even happier.”
At 37 and with injuries restricting his appearances for Everton, this is Coleman’s last chance to reach a World Cup. He added: “Selfishly it would be amazing because as players you want to do as much as you can in the game but from the aftermath of the last two games, and seeing what it did to our country, it was incredible how it lifted our country and lifted our people.
“It genuinely made people happier and gave people something to get up in the morning and talk about, which is so important. So as much as we want to do it for ourselves and for the staff behind the scenes, we want to do it for the people of our country as well.”
Ireland have been allocated only 1,024 tickets for the semi-final but having stunned a hostile crowd of 59,411 in Budapest with their dramatic last-gasp win in November, the veteran defender insists the Republic will not be intimidated in Prague.
“This group has been through a lot,” said Coleman. “The manager has touched a lot this week on the hurdles the group has overcome and I think we are ready for it. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be fiery out there, and maybe two years ago it would have been a lot for the young lads to take, but I think now everyone has stepped up and are prepared for what’s to come.”
Coleman’s confidence was shared at the pre-match press conference by Hallgrímsson, who recently extended his contract with the Football Association of Ireland until the end of the Euro 2028 campaign. The Czech Republic pose a conundrum ahead of the semi-final in the sense it will be Miroslav Koubek’s first game in charge of the national team. The 74-year-old former Viktoria Plzen coach was appointed in December as successor to Ivan Hasek, who was sacked following the shock defeat by the Faroe Islands in October that ended their hopes of automatic qualification.
Hallgrímsson said: “There could be a change with their new coach so we are not overly-analysing them. We are just focusing on ourselves and trying to build on what we have been doing. We know this coach likes to play a different formation to what they have done before so we plan for both, but we are not overly concerned about what he will throw at us.”
