The Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy had nothing but praise for his team after they won an international friendly clash with Denmark that he expected they would find a highly testing encounter.
The former Manchester City and Celtic defender oversaw a 3-0 win that will fill the Irish nation with confidence as their team prepares for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea.
After the match with Denmark, McCarthy should be even more optimistic about Ireland's chances against quality opponents such as Germany in the summer tournament.
The win saw Robbie Keane putting a disappointing season at club level to the back of his mind with a spectacular goal as well as a Clinton Morrison debut strike.
The two goalkeepers used on the night, Dean Kiely and Nicky Colgan shared the responsibility and both impressed McCarthy with their performances. But the Ireland boss singled out Damien Duff for special praise after a showing that saw the Danes unable to cope with his pace and aggression.
"Damien Duff plays a physically demanding game and excels in one-against-one situations. He was outstanding against the Danes tonight," he said.
"Niall Quinn, sitting beside me in the dug-out, turned to me after just three minutes and said that Damien had already won the man-of-the-match award. How right he was."
The Republic of Ireland boss refused to suggest that Ireland had found beating the Danes easy however. He said: "This was a difficult looking game for us on paper. But at the end it wasn't difficult, and we might have scored even more than three goals.
"Now I have loads of options as Robbie Keane and Clinton Morrison did very well up front. It would have been a psychological boost for Robbie to score against the Danes, just as he did at Lansdowne Road against Russia last month.
"I was particularly delighted that Clinton scored the goal he deserved in added time, as he had performed exceptionally well throughout the game and had a good understanding with Robbie."
McCarthy is delighted at the contribution of the senior players as what could be the last World Cup chance for some of the players approaches.
"Steve Staunton and Kenny Cunningham played their part at the back. Steve seems to have the elixir of life with his performances at the moment," he declared.
"And what can I say about Nicky Colgan. Dean Kiely had brought off a magnificent save from Rommendahl in the first half, but then Nicky came to Cunningham's rescue after a defensive mix-up in the second half. The lad can be well pleased with his debut."
The boss said that he would wait a little longer until naming the final set of players who would go to the World Cup, although he has already indicated that he has a fairly good idea of the players he has in mind.
"I won't name my 23-man squad to travel to Japan this summer - certainly not until next month's game in Dublin against the USA. Put it this way, things are progressing nicely," he concluded.
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