Liam Lawrence wants maximum points
Republic of Ireland midfielder Liam Lawrence believes that Ireland can take six points from their European Championship qualifiers with Russia and Slovakia.
The Irish face their two main rivals in the group and will play Russia at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, October 8, before they travel to Slovakia.
"We can give anyone a game and we can beat anybody. I think that six points is within our reach," said Lawrence.
"They are two massive games, especially against Russia on Friday. It will be tough, but we've come through these games before and we've got to again."
Russia has made a poor start to their campaign. They lost to Slovakia 1-0 at home in their previous game and had an unconvincing win over Andorra.
Lawrence said, "Russia will be stung a little bit and will be hurting from that defeat. I'm not sure they will be looking forward to coming to Dublin so hopefully we can catch them again and get the win."
However, the Irish midfielder has not underestimated the task ahead of his team and added, “That will be put to the test on Friday because they are one of the biggest sides in the world and have some fantastic players.”
"But it's going to be up to us, it's on our turf and hopefully we will give them a good game.”
Ireland have come unstuck against some of the European powers over the past few qualifying campaigns. They were unlucky not to beat Italy, and lost to France in controversial circumstances in a World Cup play-off.
The Portsmouth midfielder believes that these losses will spur the Irish team on.
Lawrence said, "We have learnt from those games in the past and hopefully it will stand us in good stead for Friday because we are going to have to call upon all our experience and everything we have got for these two games."
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