Excitement is building for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup play-off semi-final against Czechia this evening

just over six hours until kick-off in Prague and if the nation isn't quite holding its

breath, it's certainly in a state of high anticipation. Our correspondent Samantha Lebrary has been

speaking to some of the many Irish people on the streets of the Czech capital.

Leah Fitzgerald, I'm from Dunleary and I'm watching it here in the Dubliner, hopefully

if you can get in. How are you feeling about the game? I'm so excited. I can't wait. I

think we're going to win. Yeah. My name is Jackie Kavanaugh. I live in Castelderham,

County Kildar. We flew over on Tuesday into Frankfurt and then we drove up then I'm

over here then took about six hours and so hopefully we're going to get in there now

much the match stay there all day. Has it been worth the journey that long journey?

Absolutely. The crack is brilliant. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a long way to go between now and kick-off.

It's like six, seven hours away and you're going in there now to watch the match really be okay?

Oh, we'll be fine. We're Irish. Do you think we can actually do us?

Oh, we can of course. Two in a row. I'm sorry. It's hard in the 80 second minute and the

16 minute. I can't know. The favourite lab rocks it's going to come through.

You have no tickets. What's your plan for today? I want to just walk around now,

find some nice little little settled down and have a few beers and watch the game.

How do you feel about the game tonight? I feel confident enough tonight now. We have a good

strong team. Obviously, we're missing Colin. It makes a big difference, but please,

car will deal well. You don't have any tickets. Do you feel like you're missing out?

Absolutely not. No, even look at the cues here now. I don't think we've missed much when I've

gone through the game. Obviously, it'd be great to go through the game better to have a ticket,

but now I think we make the most of it. How do you think it's going to go?

Are you actually fans? Yes, yeah. I'm quite the conference there. We've been over-confident

as Irish always have great hopes, but I think we'll do the business. I think we'll do the business.

Well, we can go live now to Prague and our reporter, Polo Flynn.

Paul, this is the day we've been waiting for since that qualifier draw was held back in November.

What's it like in Prague today? Yeah, there's great excitement around the city,

Rachel, at least to say. It's been such a kind of a long buildup, really. It's

hard to believe today itself. It is actually here in order to have a few sore heads around the

cities this morning, but it won't take long for the fans to get over that and the party,

I think, nearly already well underway. There is a talk about the tickets.

There's some reports coming through. I think that maybe there'll be more Irish in the stadium

than that might have been expected. Officially, there's a thousand tickets and maybe 200 or so

for family and friends of the players, but I think there'll definitely be a bit more than that.

It is a small venue. It's not the most hostile place. The Republic of Ireland will go away over

the years. If there's a few toes and more Irish people in there, they'll definitely be able to

make themselves heard over the Czechs. There's great excitement from the fans' point of view, at least.

Let's talk then about the match itself. What are people expecting?

Yeah, I think from the press conferences, yes, from both managers. I think they're expecting a

tough battle. There's probably enough that much between the teams on paper at least. The Czechs

are ranked higher above us in the world, but they've had a little bit of trouble recently and

haven't been going to great. I think the big question for Arlem Andrew, Haymeer Haldrymsson is

who's going to replace Josh Cullen in midfield. He's made his mind up by now about that. The team

will be announced to us just before a kickoff later on. He's been the anchor man in midfield.

They're defensively solid. It does all the running and the hard work and he's a big miss. He's

out injured with a long-term injury. Sheamus Coleman also as well. He's a real leader in the team,

a warrior, but he's a bit short of match fitness and sharp as he hasn't been paying much for his

club, but we expect he might come in and start from the start, but they're the two big selector

hanging over Haymeer. The big question really I suppose is just how far this team can go.

There are a young team. There's experience in it as well. They've been on an upward curve.

There was amazing results against Portugal and Hungary, so unexpected to get us here.

I think that's the big question. I was ready to step up again and do it again tonight.

From this remove, I get the impression that Czech people are taking a more level-headed approach

to this match. They haven't quite wallowed in the hype to the same extent. Has that been your

experience? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, going around the city, it hasn't been on anyone's radar,

but I wouldn't let that little us into false sense of security in the stadium tonight.

Everyone who's there is going to be a big Czech football supporter and they have a very proud

history. They have fantastic results in major tournaments all throughout the years and they are

definitely a greater footballing nation than we are. But things haven't been going quite so

well for the recently. They changed their manager. They lost the Faroe Islands.

They've changed their manager. They've changed their captain. There's a lot of talk around that

Tom Suček who we well known to fans of the Premier League. He was a captain. He has fallen out.

He's going to be in the starting team or not. That's the big question that all the Czech media

are interested in here. The Czech people are talking about. But they have threats. They have a

couple of outstanding players and yeah, so do we, I suppose. We've played parrots and we'll be

hoping he'll do the business for us too. So I think there are top strong teams. We're a bit

the same. It could be a bit of a bruising battle. It might be one for the footballing

purists, but yeah, I think it's going to be a dog fight. We've had plenty of those down the

years. Just finally, Paul, there are several other qualifiers tonight, including Northern Ireland

playing Italy. Yeah, so if we thought we had a bad, I think Northern Ireland haven't even

talked for a task. I mean, they're playing Italy in Bergamo and they're semi-final. Tonight,

the winners that one will play Bosnia or Wales for their place at the World Cup. For Northern Ireland,

it's 24 years since we've been there. It's 40 years since they've been in a World Cup manager.

Mike Naliel, but he's let them two euros before in the past and he's hoping to go one better now.

They're a young team, a bit like us as well, and he says they're going to play with their fear.

They've grown through their campaign, but unfortunately for them, they're going to be without their

star pair of Conner Bradley who plays for Liverpool. He's out with a long-term injury.

So Italy, like they're under huge pressure and they're in the playoffs for a reason.

They haven't been going great and their form hasn't been quite so good. It's hard to believe,

really, but they haven't made it to the last two World Cups. It's unthinkable that they'd go

three World Cups without qualifying. Northern Ireland will be hoping to play on that. I guess

the pressure they could stay in the tight game. The fans might get on the Italians backs, but it

would be really an all-time upset. I think if Northern Ireland were to win tonight.

Paul, thank you very much. Now without Troy Parrott's goal-scoring extravaganza against Portugal

and Hungary, Ireland wouldn't be in Prague tonight. Colomal Connel is a teacher and coach at O'Connell's

secondary school in Dublin where Troy went to school and where his talent started to become clear.

When I spoke to Colomal short time ago, he was on a bus and the reason for that will become a

parent in a couple of minutes. I began by asking him about Troy's time playing for the school.

Yeah, Troy came to school about 11 years ago. He came out from the O'Connell's primary and he was

well-known. I've been flagged up about how good he was, but he was an excellent footballer.

Every game he played for the school, he gave 100%. He was a great man for encouraging players.

He's a great source of touch on the ball. He's always in space. I think it's just general

attitude and determination playing for O'Connell's one. You know, he could have sought

or true games. He gave everything for the school and he was a great credit to himself

to the area and the school itself. What does it mean to you and indeed to all of the boys to see

how well he's been doing? It shows like it's over hard work and get you and he had a talent.

But it's no point having a talent. You don't work hard at it and he worked very hard at it.

He's dedicated himself to the game. It's in a great lift at the school. I mean, to the country,

he's been a great lift. I mean, he is probably single handedly brought more joy to the country

and the last god knows him any year sports wise. Maybe Kelly Harrington, he lives down the

road from the same. How do you and how do the boys feel about tonight? Are you nervous?

I suppose a bit of trevitation, you know, the boys as well. It's just hopefully we win. I mean,

you don't really know if the game starts a bit of luck. You know, it's got to go earlier

later. We have a chance. It's a 50-50 game. We're all a bit anxious, shall we say. No one's

overly confident. We might be confident, but not overly confident.

I mean, just thinking about Troy, he's obviously under a lot of pressure because, you know,

he achieved so much in those games before Christmas, but maybe that's the difference between someone

like Troy and the rest of us is that he seems to be able to handle that pressure.

He was always, and the one thing that struck me about him as a player, he was always very cool

under, you know, playing for the school or when I watch him play for Belvedere, he's always very

cool. He doesn't, he doesn't do rash things at the ball. And when he gets into gold,

scoring positions, he's able to take his chances. You know, he's in a job which comes of pressure,

and, you know, locally, he's in Holland, so he's probably missed a bit of the build up,

but he is, you know, just a country. He's not just on him, it's on the team as well, and I think

he's well able to handle it. In the meantime, you have a match yourselves today.

Yeah, we're in the lengths to school's final under 15. We're playing Clara. The game has started at

12 o'clock. We're just on the bus on the way out now. All right. And you were in a similar

match. What about 10 years ago? And you had Troy playing for you then? Yeah, we had Troy played

for us from when the year we won there at the oil island, and needless to say, we were two

nil down and Troy still opened score. A hat trick and we won three, too. It was a great day. He has

a night for scoring goals, and he's done it all his life, and I think he's doing it against nice.

So we're the boys excited about tonight. They are very excited about tonight. They're very

excited about the match in an hours time. Colombo Connell from O'Connell School in Dublin,

and we also heard there from some of this year's under 15s. We'll be returning to the match later,

by the way, when we'll be hearing from Iceland.