Sionko - Germany and Czechs are main contenders
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t's so disappointing to be unavailable for this game through injury. Despite our respective starts, I think it is impossible to choose a favourite between ourselves and the Irish ahead of the match at Lansdowne Road. I believe it will be an open game with chances for both sides. The Republic of Ireland have a very good team - but we are full of confidence after a good start to the qualifying campaign.
I remember playing in Dublin in a friendly in 2004 when we lost 2-1. I was marking Damien Duff and it was a really tough game for me. In fact, I played only the first half of the match and it was so difficult to stop Duff. He was in excellent form at that time. It is a shame we will not meet again on the pitch this time.
People have told me Ireland are not as strong as they were two years ago but I do not know too much information about the team. The players will get more information from our coach before the game. The Czech Republic are having to focus on building a new team without Pavel [Nedved] and Karel [Poborsky]. But so far we have won our three Euro 2008 qualifying games without them and that is a good sign.
If you ask me about the big threats from Ireland, I would have to say Duff and, of course, Robbie Keane is a very good player. But it is not only these two players who can be influential and we respect all their players.
Ireland have chance of qualifying but I would say the same about every team in this group, apart from the clear outsiders. By my reckoning, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland and even Slovakia, who lost to us, are the main contenders for the first two
spots.
