So, after a lot of hanging around for Mick McCarthy and his squad, it's finally time for action again. Croatia at home. Well, it's not exactly the one you would have picked out if you were looking to get off to a flyer but it's the real thing, which is all that will matter to everyone in the Ireland camp.

The fact that international teams can go for just short of a year now without playing competitively makes it difficult for managers who then need to hit the ground running when the qualifiers kick off again. Still, the flip side of that is that the Croatians will still be winding down from their outstanding World Cup. They might be a tough team for us to start up against but this could yet prove to be just the right time to play them.

The Croatians were, obviously, very good in France. They have good, technically-gifted players and a system which they know well. They're not the most flexible of sides but they know what their strengths are - most notably an ability to absorb pressure when required to, and break at speed through the centre, and the fact is that their strengths are more numerous than their weaknesses.

The loss of Robert Prosinecki, or Slaven Bilic for that matter, won't have done them any good but they will still have quality players in most areas of the pitch. Robert Jarni, Zvonimir Soldo, Mario Stanic, Zvonimir Boban and Aljosa Asanovic all showed us again just what good players they are at the World Cup.

In goals, though, they look suspect; Drazen Ladic was less than impressive in France. Up front, the loss of both Davor Suker and Alen Boksic is the sort of thing that Mick McCarthy probably wished for when he blew out the candles on his last birthday cake. Still, they'll be strong, and a slight hangover from the success of the summer would be a help this afternoon.

Whatever team Miroslav Blazevic fields, the Irish boss will have little choice but to send his players out in a positive frame of mind at three o'clock today. It's early days in this qualifying tournament, but taking anything from our second game, in Belgrade next month, will be a bonus and the last thing he'll want is to wind up after two games with a single point, or worse still, nothing at all.

And winning today is far from out of the question if we play the game in a way that suits us. We have to dominate the proceedings from early on, hustle them at every opportunity and dictate the sort of pattern which will allow us to play to our own strengths.

Our own loss up front, Niall Quinn, is quite a blow, but in just about every other department McCarthy has a strong squad available to him and he looks, for the first time in a long time, to have some interesting options.

Midfield will be the key area if the Irish are to take control of this contest and dominate the way the game is played. In this respect the return of Roy Keane is obviously of central importance. He should give McCarthy's side a powerful presence in the centre, hopefully one on which a winning performance can be constructed.

It is who lines out alongside the Manchester United captain that's the most interesting. In Keane's absence Lee Carsley did very well, but the manager has opted for Mark Kinsella who has shown some tremendous form since coming into the Premiership last month.

Unless there was to be a switch back to the use of wing backs, however, only two of these three could really have played today and, given the similarities of style between Keane and the Derby County player, it is Carsley who has missed out.

One of the problems associated with Croatia's approach is the lack of width that they have in midfield. That made McCarthy's choice of full backs vitally important, because there should be the opportunities to get forward down the flanks and, hopefully, get crosses in from good positions.

Denis Irwin and Steve Staunton have proved to be best suited to this sort of game and they should fit in well behind Damien Duff on one side and Jason McAteer on the other.

Kenna has been playing well at club level of late but McAteer, who missed out on Sunday in Liverpool's game against Newcastle, looks to be the best option for this particular game. On his day and with a player of Irwin's ability behind him, he has the pace and balance to cause defenders problems by running at them.

That is something we are going to have to do today if we are going to to win. Although Tony Cascarino is the only really experienced striker left in the squad, it was always unlikely that he would get the nod ahead of Robbie Keane or Keith O'Neill. O'Neill, in fact, is an ideal choice to partner Robbie Keane. They will certainly add imagination and a little bit of the unpredictability, which has been missing from the Irish attack for a while now. The only worry is that they will struggle to hold the ball up against such experienced defenders.

This means the midfield players will have to carry the ball forward more. The service from that sector is going to have to be a great deal better than in some of World Cup qualifiers. The crosses that are sent in are going to have to be the sort that cause genuine problems for the central defenders, not the sort of hopeful rubbish that Quinn so regularly finds himself having to deal with.

In the absence of both Suker and Boksic it is hard to tell just how much of a threat Croatia will pose on the break but, however good they are, at least we know it could have been worse. McCarthy has decided on Kenny Cunningham in the centre of defence again this afternoon in preference to Ian Harte, particularly given that he is not even playing as a defender for his club anymore.

Of the candidates for the other slot, Phil Babb's pace gave him the edge over Gary Breen, especially when you look at the sort of opposition that we are coming up against.

Overall, it's going to be difficult, but if we are to have a serious chance of making it out of this group then we are going to have to knock out some good results, certainly better ones than we managed at home to Lithuania and Iceland last time around.

If the Croatians play the way they did against the Germans then the whole task may simply be beyond us and nobody will have any cause to complain afterwards, but if they don't? Well, if that happens, we can only hope that this time McCarthy's players have what it takes to seize the moment and grab the points.

(In an interview with Emmet Malone)