Jamie McGrath insists Ireland can upset the odds against France.
The 26-year-old has swapped Dundee United’s battle at the bottom of the Premiership to test himself against some of the top talents in world football in his country’s opening Euro 24 qualifier.
The formidable French will arrive at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin with their tails up after starting their Group B campaign with a thumping 4-0 win over the Netherlands on Friday.
However, McGrath previously played against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in two World Cup qualifiers and he knows Ireland are capable of going toe to toe with the best.
The midfielder stated: “Definitely, I was lucky enough to play in both Portugal games and there is probably a difference in the quality levels.
“But when you are on the pitch it doesn’t really feel like that.
“You have a game plan and if you stick in, you give yourself a chance.
“We drew with Portugal a year ago now and that’s still fresh in our minds.
“It is just 11v11 at the end of the day.
“I think if you have a good shape and are hard to beat, you are going to get chances at the other end as well.
“There are always upsets in football.”
Ireland group ‘hardest’ imaginable
As well as France and the Netherlands, Ireland’s group also includes Greece and Gibraltar with McGrath under no illusions about just how tough qualification will be.
He added: “It is a very tricky group, probably the hardest we could have got.
“France and Holland are obviously the two biggest names.
“But we ran Portugal very close so I am sure we can put in a similar level of performance against the French and obviously try to get a result out of the game.
“This is a new campaign and new faces have been brought in as well.
“It is exciting times and I am just delighted to be a part of it.”
One of those new faces is Celtic’s Mikey Johnston, who made a big impact when making his debut from the bench for Ireland in their 3-2 friendly win over Latvia last week.
McGrath is looking forward to seeing more of the same from Johnston who is currently on loan at Vitória Guimarães in Portugal, saying: “He is a natural dribbler with the ball who always seems to want to beat his man.
“He is direct and I am sure he will bring something different to the squad.”
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