Veteran Steve Staunton last night claimed Ireland's charge into the second phase of the World Cup matches their achievements during Jack Charlton's glorious heyday.
Ireland skipper Staunton, 33, enjoyed wonderful success under Charlton as Ireland reached the quarter-finals in Italia 90 and beat Italy on their way to reaching the second phase four years later in America.
But Staunton firmly believes Ireland's achievement of getting through such a tough first-round group against Germany and Cameroon more than matches their past glories.
Aston Villa defender Staunton now leads his team into a second-round meeting with Spain in Suwon, South Korea on Sunday, and he insists the much-fancied Spaniards will not hold any fears.
Ireland had already battled their way to gritty draws with Cameroon and Germany before clinching their second round place by beating Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night.
Staunton now insists they will go into the clash with Spain with the same never-say-die spirit which has seen them through such a turbulent beginning to their World Cup campaign.
Staunton, who will win his 102nd cap against Spain on Sunday, said: "It's been a marvellous achievement and it's the first time in a World Cup for a lot of these players.
"But this achievement is right up there with what we did in Italia 90 and four years later when you consider what we've been up against this time.
"We battled th rough a group which included the Germans and the African champions but we've done the business and we won't have any fears of meeting anyone now.
"No team in this World Cup will relish meeting us, that's for sure, because we always make it difficult for opposing teams and fight until the end."
It has now given Ireland genuine hope of causing a major upset against Spain as the players jetted from Tokyo and into South Korea yesterday.
Spain are rapidly emerging as one of the hot favourites to win the World Cup thanks to three impressive wins in Group C.
But Staunton vowed that Ireland will relish being underdogs once again just as they did when few people gave them much of a chance of getting out of a group which included Germany and Cameroon.
Staunton said: "There's that funny old saying, "you'll never beat the Irish", and it's so true because we never know when we're beaten.
"We always keep going and we never listened to those people who didn't give us a chance of getting through the group and into the second phase.
"Few people give us a chance now but we won't listen to them again because we thrive on being underdogs and we won't be intimidated."
But after their heroic draws against Cameroon and Germany, it was more of a stumble against Saudi Arabia as Ireland laboured heavily before eventually running out 3-0 winners. Ireland boss Mick McCarthy admits that they will need to improve to beat the bigger teams during the knockout stages, but insists their below par display against the Saudis was more down to nerves.
It was also unusual for Ireland not to be underdogs for once and McCarthy will be relishing the chance to regain that tag in the second stage.
Ireland always thrive on upsetting the odds and McCarthy believes their never-say-die spirit will scare some of the big guns who have reached the latter stages of the World Cup.
McCarthy said: "Our first half performance against Saudi Arabia was our worst since we've been in this competition but what's pleasing is that we came through it and put it right in the end.
"We can be over-critical and analyse our performance too much but the main thing is that we are through and into the second phase.
"We have now got a few days until Sunday to look at where we went wrong and put things right before we play our next match.
"But now we are in the second phase, we can just settle down, relax and hopefully get back to doing what we do best - upsetting a few people!"
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