Doyle wary of Slovakia

Ireland striker expecting two tough games next

Last updated: 9th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Doyle wary of Slovakia

Doyle: Ready for tough games

SKY SPORTS ON SKY
There's more live football on Sky Sports than ever before, including the Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, England away Euro 2012 qualifiers and La Liga. With four live Sky Sports channels, as well as Sky Sports News, you'll never miss a moment on Sky. Click here for more.

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Kevin Doyle admits the Republic of Ireland are facing two 'tough games' in their next Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Ireland have enjoyed a perfect start to their qualification campaign and followed up a battling win in Armenia with a comfortable home success over Andorra.

Giovanni Trapattoni's men next face Group B's top seeds Russia at home before travelling to Slovakia, who won in Moscow on Tuesday.

Wolves striker Doyle is aware of the threat posed by Dick Advocaat's Russia side and also warned against under-estimating Slovakia.

Wounded

Doyle said: "It just shows Slovakia aren't going to be easy to beat either. We had two tough games against them in the last European qualifiers.

"We probably should have won out there - we gave a goal away in the last minute - and we beat them at home, but it won't be easy.

"Russia obviously won't be easy. They will be wounded, they will want to pick up three points straight away now.

"They are two tough games, but we have been playing well."

Ireland beat Slovakia 1-0 in Dublin in March 2007 with Doyle scoring the only goal, and he was also on target in a 2-2 draw in Bratislava six months later.

Doyle notched his ninth international goal in Tuesday's 3-1 success over Andorra and was satisfied with the quality of his 25-yard effort.

He added: "It's always nice to score, scrappy goals or whatever sort of goals, but a sweet strike is nice. A lot of times they don't, but when they fly in, it's nice to do it.

"We had spoken about hitting it - for some reason, the ball seemed to be moving a lot in the warm-up and Shay Given had mentioned to hit it any chance you get, so I did.

"I struck it sweetly enough and it just flew in, which was nice to see."