Martin O’Neill under no illusions about the scale of the task

Before the sun sets in Bordeaux today, the beautiful French city may well have taken its place among the other heritage sites in Irish football history.

The Republic of Ireland's progress to the knockout phase of France 2016 is not entirely dependent on this afternoon's result against a giddily gifted Belgium team whose nerves are rumoured to be frayed.

But after Ireland's team plane made the short hop from Paris on Friday afternoon, they were checked into their hotel in time to catch Italy's dauntingly patient unlocking of Sweden.

Suddenly, the what-if scenarios were dancing before everyone’s eyes.

But as the players prepared for a training session on a stormy and rain-soaked evening on the Garonne, Martin O’Neill looked as he always looks like on eve-of-match: an A student concentrating on the next exam.

"A late goal for Italy. it has obviously given them six points on the board. I'm not exactly sure of permutations . . .we will have time enough to look at those after Saturday evening. But I think regardless now ....it looks like we are going to have to win a game."

Wounded animal

Still, it was difficult not to envy Italy’s clean and relatively effortless move to pole position in this group and to revisit the nagging worry that the failure to beat Sweden in Paris last Monday night might prove costly for the Irish.

Ireland’s tactical preparation for this match will be slightly compromised by the uneasy sense that Belgium are a wounded animal just now.

Their insipid opening performance was subject to a withering and immediate after-match critique by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who claimed that his team had been “outclassed on all fronts.”

The bitterness contained within the chastisement betrayed the height of ambitions within Marc Wilmot’s squad.

A golden generation of Belgian players were tipped as potential winners and the midweek rumours of a heated and recriminatory bust-up between Courtois and the coach were swept aside when both men appeared at the stadium on Friday evening.

“It’s part of the football circus. I don’t believe the players leaked any of the information,” said Courtois.

Who said what when is irrelevant now as the Belgians try to mirror their number two Fifa world ranking with an on field performance that substantiates that flattery.

The unknowable for O’Neill is whether the internal crisis will leave them brittle or provoke them into playing with a healthy sense of grievance to remind Europe that there are Belgian masters also.

Headline cast

Their headline cast of star names runs deep. Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne have soaked up much of the hype.

But of equal concern to the Republic’s defensive mindset will be the Radja Nainggolan, Roma’s peroxide, hard-running little midfielder and Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco whose stock soared after an eye-catching season with Atletico Madrid.

Throw in Christian Benteke, Toby Alderweireld's form through Tottenham's title chase and Divioch Origi and Marseille's young striker Michy Batshuayi and O'Neill could have spent Friday night burning the midnight oil in Bordeaux and filling note pads with potential Belgian problems.

It isn't being entirely reductive to the Republic of Ireland's options to suggest that the main issue for O'Neill is how to fill the void left by the injured Jon Walters. Stephen Ward joining the back line to facilitate Robbie Brady advancing to midfield or a start for James McClean will allow for a densely packed midfield formation and a lonesome night for Shane Long up front.

“A number,” O’Neill said with a dark laugh when challenged on Friday evening to name how many Belgians would make his side.

“How significant that number is will depend on tomorrow evening. They are very talented. No question. All playing big club football. And they might look at us and say that some of our players are not playing at that level every single week and that they might have an advantage with that. It doesn’t always work that way. But individually they are as talented as any side playing and if they went on to win it wouldn’t be a major surprise to me.”

But O'Neill is clueless as to which Belgium his team will encounter: a disparate collection of disenchanted superstars – and if this is the case the dressing-room absence of Vincent Kompany may be as critical as his on-field influence – or a talented young team willing to delve within for whatever element of character was missing against the Italians.

Wilmots was predictably complimentary about the Irish challenge but there was no disguising the Belgian’s belief that they should be capable of rectifying their tournament reputation here in Bordeaux. Internationally, this match will be viewed in that context.

“When you have individuals as good as Belgium can be that when they don’t win a game they are perhaps expected to – and to digress for a quick second there seems to be talk of friction in the camp because they don’t beat Italy....Italy are a top class side. They are a tournament team. That game any one of us in the room might not have been able to call. People then start comparing Belgium with Holland and disharmony. I think they do that just because geographically they are quite close. . .”added O’Neill

Good omen

Northern Ireland’s triumph over Ukraine may be a good omen for O’Neill but he was reluctant to dwell too long on that. The Republic will at the very worst have a safety blanket of next Wednesday’s game against Italy but this intriguing meeting with the would-be princes of the European game will offer further evidence as to O’Neill’s belief that his team have reached a level of accomplishment. If they do, he might just peruse the local wine list.