The head coach of the national team Johnny Mackinstry has praised players who made their début for the national team in the first leg match against Swaziland. He described them as "national properties".
Mackinstry said "I'm impressed with their brilliant performance and am sure they will replicate that performance if given the chance to play at home". The Irish man said his team started training "a few days back as most of the invited players have arrived and a few more are expected within a day or two to join the others in training".
The coach said the first leg tie was difficult because they only trained once before the match but that they now need to score and defend well. "It is an open game both teams have a chance to qualify based on the result but we have a better chance than them because we playing at home and having a well balance team full of options this time round as few of the usual names are expected to come back to squad".
He praised the Swazi team, describing them as a "very strong team with youthful players and strong technical team, they are not pushovers, they will give us a hard match".
(C) Politico 29/05/14
