THE Republic of Ireland will face a familiar adversary when they open their World Cup programme at the foot of the Alps in Vaduz next Saturday.

Fifteen months ago, Martin Heeb marked the pitch and then went on to torment the Irish attack with a series of astonishing saves which signalled the beginning of the end of Jack Charlton's European Championship challenge.

Ominously, Heeb, a groundsman at the Eschen Sportspark where Saturday's drama will be played out in front of a capacity crowd of just 4,500, is again in the squad of 19 players named by manager Dietrich Weise.

And the word from the tiny principality is that the flamboyant goalkeeper, standing just 5 ft 9 in, is still trading in heroics.

When FC Vaduz met the Latvian club Universitate Riga in the return leg of their European Cup Winners Cup fixture last Thursday, Heeb's agility was largely responsible for earning them all draw which took the tie to a sudden death shoot out.

Not content with that, he then volunteered to take the last decisive penalty and promptly sank it in the net to earn Vaduz a plum meeting with Paris St Germain in the next round.

Ironically, Heeb's deputy in the national team, Martin Oehry who plays with SV Frastanz in Austria, is one of only two full time professionals in the Liechtenstein squad.

Given the cult status of the man he understudies, however, Oehry must again resign himself to the prospect of sitting on the bench, as the motley bunch of part timers, including a mechanic, an architect, a van driver, a postman and a draughtsman, go in search of another memorable result. Three of the team which drove Charlton and his players to the edge of despair in June of last year, Ulrich Ritter, Wolfgang Ospelt and Kurt Burgmaier, have since retired.

They lost all nine games in the remainder of their European Championship programme, scoring only once and conceding 40 goals in the process. So one can hardly blame Weise when he says that the Republic of Ireland is his favourite opposition. For the first time, Weise has succeeded in negotiating a modest bonus scheme for his players for this match.

FC Vaduz contribute six players to the squad. Apart from Oehry, the only other full time professional is Mario Frick, the captain, who plays in Switzerland with FC Basle.

To date, the FAI has sold some 800 tickets for the game.