Mick McCarthy’s men face a friendly against New Zealand tonight ahead of Monday's game against the Danes, knowing a win will see them secure qualification for next summer’s European Championships. Duffy went onto speak about the magnitude of the contest against a side him and his teammates know well.
He said, “It’s a huge game, we had a chance in the last match to try and seal qualification but sadly we were unable to do that.
“It’s like a cup final really and we know that if we win we qualify. We have a bit of history with Denmark too after recent years, so it would be great to get a result on Monday evening.
“The ground will be full and rocking and everyone knows the significance of the game, so we have to use all of that to our advantage on home soil to make sure we go through.
The two countries met in the play-offs for the 2018 FIFA World Cup exactly two years ago today, with Denmark running out 5-1 winners on a disappointing night in Dublin.
Duffy scored on that evening back in 2017, as well as in the reverse fixture of this qualifying campaign back in a 1-1 draw in June, and the defender looked back on both of those contests and reflected on how the side have progressed under McCarthy’s tutelage.
“It was a tough game, we took an early lead, but then they were the better side on the night, so we had no complaints,” he continued.
“The game back in June was tough, I scored late on and that showed the character we had to come from behind away from home against a side of their quality. We could’ve won it in the end too and we have to take that belief into Monday, we’ve played them five times now and they’ve only beaten us once, so hopefully we can get another good result.
“We’ve changed as a side since that night, it’s been a bit of a slow burner because we haven’t had many friendly matches and we went straight into qualification. We’ve got results early on and have only lost once. We have bit of a different style and we’ve picked up the points to put us in a strong position."