I'll be caught up with Eng-er-land in Munich tonight, but my BBC bosses have agreed to let me watch a live feed of our game - one, I'm afraid, I think the Dutch will win. It's the first time in a long, long time - maybe ever - I've tipped us to be defeated at home but, under the circumstances, I'm finding it hard to forecast any other result.

At best - and I'll be saying my prayers - we might draw, which would be good enough, but I certainly can't see us beating the Dutch. To be honest, I'm the least confident about this game than I've been about any other home tie I can remember.

When you look at the Dutch front three - Patrick Kluivert, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Marc Overmars - they're all clinical, pacey and strong and, I reckon, possess enough class to get Holland the win they need.

Having said all that I don't care if Ireland employed the top coach in Europe - whoever that might be - even he couldn't have done any better than Mick McCarthy has done in this campaign. He has got better every year as a manager; Ireland have had a very, very good campaign and the whole country would have taken the position we're in now if you'd offered it to them at the start of the campaign.

We've had three or four injuries for this game and the quality of the replacements isn't top class - therein lies the problem. McCarthy's got one world class player (Roy Keane); his likely back four today has never played together before; Steve Staunton and Gary Kelly can't get in their club sides; Richard Dunne is playing in the first division. We have to be realistic, we have a very small nucleus of players - one outstanding player, a couple of very good ones and some ordinary ones. Taking all that in to consideration McCarthy has done wonders in this campaign.

Our best hope today, though, rests with the fact that, at home, we've always given everyone a really good game and even when we haven't played well - and this is our single greatest strength - we are extremely good at putting teams under pressure and making them hurry. But today we not only have to make the Dutch hurry, we also have to cause them problems.

The best way to get a draw in football, and this will never change, is to try to score - if you sit back you're asking for trouble. Yes, keep it tight but always look to get forward when you can. If we sit back today and let their full backs come at us we'll effectively be signing a suicide note.

They'll get forward, Jaap Stam will come out and suddenly we'll find ourselves swamped in midfield. If we don't occupy their back four they'll occupy us.

Stam? No, he won't be distracted after the week he's had - the fact that the Dutch have to win will concentrate his mind. He'll also know the game is going live to Britain so his attitude will be "I'll show the so-and-so" (Alex Ferguson).

A lot has been made of his book but the noises coming out of Old Trafford now are that Ferguson thinks he might have lost half a yard of pace, but I've yet to see that. To me it was a nonsensical sale. I'm so surprised at Ferguson's decision, I really am.

Most of our worries today probably centre on Dunne and Staunton versus van Nistelrooy and Kluivert but for me what will be more crucial are the performances of Keane and, presumably, Matt Holland alongside him. They're the key to how well Dunne and Staunton do because they can be the first line of defence. The full backs, too, have to stop Overmars and Zenden from getting to the by-line and getting at the two central defenders.

I'd definitely play Niall Quinn up front with Robbie Keane and play Damien Duff on the left because I can't see any benefit in playing Kilbane as a winger and not playing Niall because he is, without doubt, our best player at holding the ball up - and we'll need plenty of that to relieve the pressure.

Duff is in such good form at the moment it doesn't really matter where he plays, he's having one of those spells in football and looks very, very sharp. If you play him on the wing it might also stop the Dutch getting forward from those deep positions.

If Ian Harte misses out I'd have no worries about Steve Finnan if he came in - I think he's more than capable, even if he'd face a huge task in looking after Overmars. He's definitely one for the future for us.

The Dutch aren't super human, they're not the best team on the planet by any stretch of the imagination, but what they are very good at is getting the results when they most need them. They have world class players in the departments where you need them most, and they have them in abundance; we've got one.

When push comes to shove they perform, and it's definitely "coming to shove" today. Yes, there's huge pressure on them, thanks to their early form in the qualifiers, but they have so many players who are used to that level of pressure. If we play to our very best today we might nick a draw, but my head, I'm afraid, says "Dutch win".

In an interview with Mary Hannigan