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Glenn Whelan believes Ireland can qualify automatically for the European Championships
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Republic of Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan has his sights set on topping Group B and securing an automatic place at the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine.
Ireland kick off their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign against Armenia in Yerevan on Friday and follow that up with a home game against Andorra next Tuesday.
Whelan admitted that it will be tough to finish above top seeds Russia and World Cup qualifiers Slovakia, but he hopes that the defeat to France has made the squad more determined to avoid the play-off route.
He said: 'We are not going into any campaign thinking 'let's go for second'. We are definitely going for top and hopefully that is the case.
'We know we have got some tough places to go and we are going to have some hard games, but we'll just worry about ourselves and what we can do.'
Whelan is one of a number of players who earned their first caps under Giovanni Trapattoni and have since gone on to become regulars in the team.
The Stoke City midfielder believes that Ireland are a wiser, more battle-hardened team than the one that set out to qualify for the 2010 World Cup back in September 2008.
He said: 'If you look at two years ago, there was a few players coming on the scene that had not had that many games internationally.
'But now quite a lot of us have picked up a fair few caps and we've been through a campaign already. Hopefully, that will help us and we can get through.
'We have been away and got some big results, especially the Italian game and how we got a late result out there. It is just little things like that you remember.'
The most difficult obstacle for automatic qualification are Dick Advocaat's Russia, but Whelan believes Ireland's recent performances will have the Russians looking over their shoulder.
'Going to Russia we know it is going to be hard, but hopefully the Russians are thinking the same when they have to come to Dublin,' said Whelan.
'We want to top the group, so if we want to top the group we have to do better than Russia. But it is not just the Russians, there are other teams in there who will be thinking the same.'
Whelan has recovered from a calf injury picked up in pre-season, which forced him to miss last month's friendly with Argentina, and is expected to win his 21st cap on Friday.
Having experienced the highs and lows of international football in the past two years, Whelan is eager for the competitive action to begin again.
'This is the first game. We have to go out there and get the right result and play really well to get this campaign going. That is what we are setting out for', he said.
'Because of what happened in the last campaign, everyone was hoping for this one to come around as soon as possible. It's here now and hopefully everyone forgets about what happened in France.'
