Presume I've Titled This Post With Some Cliches About 'Irish Eyes' or 'Stan The Man'

Roll out the cliches...'Irish Eyes are Smiling' and all that patronising rubbish. Don't forget to throw in a few faintly condescending remarks about new Republic of Ireland manager, Steve 'Stan' Staunton and you pretty much have the match reports for the Ireland v Sweden game.

Let's lay all that to one side. The Republic (who won 3-0 against a pretty much full strength Sweden) deserved the victory. Staunton set his stall out with an extremely attacking formation featuring 3 strikers and Damien Duff getting forward at every opportunity. And they scared hell out of the Swedes.

I watched a half hour of this match before the beginning of the England game and I knew that Sweden were in for a hammering even then. It was good to see a manager (new or not) trying to win and win in style. But, frankly, if that's all that Sweden have got to offer, England should roll over them at the World Cup itself.

However, let's not forget that the Republic have at least three players that would - if they were English- be definites for the England squad (Given, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff) and they do have some other solid players, especially in defence.

It just goes to show that a good team performance will win a team game. Are you listening, England ?