John O’Shea: Robbie Keane will set a goalscoring target for Republic of Ireland that will never be matched

Home Nation cup : Robbie Keane, Republic of Ireland v Northern Ireland

Related Links

Teams

Players

Manchester United defender John O’Shea is convinced that Robbie Keane’s goalscoring record for the Republic of Ireland will never be outdone.

The 30-year-old found the back of the net twice in Republic of Ireland’s 2-0 win against Macedonia on Saturday to bring his international goals tally to 51.

International team-mate O’Shea is adamant that whatever record Keane ends up setting will never be equalled, especially as the Tottenham forward still has a few years left to play.

He told Sky Sports News: “He’s been an amazing striker for Ireland.

“He going to set a target that I don’t think anyone will ever reach and he’s got plenty more years left in him yet.”

Ireland’s win keeps their chances for an automatic qualification for the 2012 European Championship alive as they share top spot in Group B with Slovakia and Russia.

“With the break in between the next two games, if we had lost or drawn last night it would have been a huge dampener,” O’Shea added.

“Now we have a couple of months to enjoy this result and look forward to the next two games – Slovakia at home and Russia away.

“That’ll tell us whether we have a chance of winning the group and qualifying automatically.

“If we can beat Slovakia at home we’ll go to Russia with a lot of confidence and then you never know.”