McCarthy sets six-point target - March 14,
2001
Ireland boss Mick McCarthy has set the target of maximum World Cup qualifying points from this month's Mediterranean mini-tour.
The Republic play Cyprus in Larnaca on March 24 and Andorra in Barcelona four days later - and McCarthy says nothing less than two wins will do if we are to nail down the one automatic qualifying slot from Group 2.
"Realistically, to win the group we need to take six points from the Cyprus and Andorra games - because Portugal and Holland will take the six points from their away games with these teams," McCarthy said.
"If we want to compete with them and go on to win the group that's the sort of target we've got to set ourselves."
The manager warned that the Cyprus assignment might be tougher than Irish fans imagine. The Cypriots missed out on a play-off for Euro 2000 by a single point and they beat Spain along the way!
"I watched the video of Holland's 4-0 win over Cyprus and it wasn't until the Dutch scored their first goal from a wonderful free kick in the 76th minute that Cyprus looked as if they were going to lose," he said.
"But it wouldn't be a disaster if we did drop two points. We still have Portugal and Holland in Dublin and those are games that we could win."