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Republic of Ireland play host to Estonia this evening knowing their place at Euro 2012 is as good as guaranteed.
Ireland couldn't have asked for a better Euro 2012 playoff first leg. They went to Tallinn hoping to sneak a narrow victory that they could take back to Dublin but instead they scored a 4-0 win that has virtually ensured that they will be playing in Ukraine and Poland next summer.
Giovanni Trapattoni's side can now afford to lose, and lose fairly heavily, in the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday and still qualify for the finals but, given the first leg, that looks unlikely. It is just 4/11 at bet365 that they beat Estonia in Dublin and they will be well supported, even at that short price.
There is little to suggest that Republic of Ireland won't seal qualification with a victory but it is dangerous to back them to cover a one goal handicap, at odds of 41/40 as there is no necessity to do so. Trapattoni will set his team up to negate any threat posed by Estonia and it will, most likely, be solid defending for 90-minutes with attacks coming via balls to Aiden McGeady and Robbie Keane.
The latter became the 25th highest international goalscorer in history on Friday and he is now just two behind brazilian legend Romario in the world scoring stakes. He is the 13/5 favourite to open the scoring on Tuesday and he will be Ireland's main goal threat. The fact that Keane takes his country's penalties also boosts his goal credentials. It is 8/11 that the scores at any time on Tuesday and that looks a reasonable price.
However, it will be defence first for Ireland at the Aviva Stadium and that means that goals could be in short supply on Tuesday night. Seven of Ireland's last nine matches have contained less than 2.5 goals and odds of 4/5 that there are fewer than three when Estonia come to Dublin look fantastic.
The visitors will, in theory, be going all out to beat Ireland but if they fail to score in the opening 20-minutes then they are likely to become demoralised. It is 9/1 that they beat their hosts but it could well be that the two sides end up playing out a dull draw (10/3) and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the final score was 0-0. A goal-less draw can be backed at 9/1 with
bet365 although correct score punters are advised to make another selection as the firm refund all losing bets if the match finishes without a goal being scored.