Ireland’s results have underwhelmed in recent years, though they are rarely beaten easily, especially in Dublin where they have lost by a margin of two or more goals just once since November 2017.

The Republic have routinely saved some of their best work for friendly matches in the Irish capital and they have tasted defeat there only once in 11 non-competitive games.

In fact, Belgium were one of the sides that failed to leave Dublin with a victory when they drew 2-2 with Ireland in a friendly encounter at the Aviva Stadium in March 2022, and a similarly keen contest could be in the works this weekend.

With his tenure certain to be short, interim Ireland boss John O’Shea will be determined to make an impression, so expect to see plenty of hard-running and energetic pressing from a youthful Ireland side.

While they aren’t renowned for being prolific scorers, Ireland have found the net in 12 of their last 16 games on home soil and they could score again against a Belgian side that have kept only one clean sheet in their last nine away friendlies.

Even without the creative wizardry of Kevin De Bruyne and the finishing prowess of Romelu Lukaku, Belgium have the potency to bite back, however. The Red Devils scored in each of their last ten matches, hitting the net at least three times in six of the same games, so back them to maintain their impressive strike rate in Dublin.

With competitive pressure lifted and an open game likely, the goals markets hold much more appeal than anything match result related and backing both teams to score at 1.83 could be a smart move, while the over 2.5 goals line also catches the eye here at 2.10.

After a couple of false starts, Blackburn’s Sammie Szmodics is finally ready to begin his international career with Ireland and the 28-year-old could be worth backing to make an instant splash on Saturday.

Szmodics is enjoying the best campaign of his career at club level by a distance and the Rovers attacker is the leading scorer in the Championship so far with 21 goals. Szmodics has been averaging 1.30 shots on target per game for Blackburn and the forward is good value to register at least one accurate attempt against Belgium.

Winger Chiedozie Ogbene meanwhile, has also been catching the eye for his club, Luton, in the Premier League and the rapid wide player seems to excel against high-level opponents. The 26-year-old clocked nine shots across his last four international run-outs and Ogbene might be worth a look at 1.80 to land at least one shot on target this weekend.

For Belgium, Leandro Trossard should be shortlisted. The Arsenal star found the target with a strike in three of his last four appearances for his country and in four of his last five starts for the Gunners.

The Republic of Ireland were working towards being a possession-based team under previous manager Stephen Kenny and their desire to keep more of the ball was reflected in many of their match statistics.

Their possession stats climbed and their corner tallies did likewise, and despite facing big names like France and the Netherlands along the way, Ireland managed to win the corner battle in each of their last five fixtures in Dublin.

They managed to win at least seven corners in five of the same fixtures and their ability to rack them up makes them a superb shout at 1.73 to win over 3.5 corners at Belgium’s expense on Saturday.

Belgian meanwhile, are a little hard to nail down. They won nine corners to their opponent’s zero in big home wins over Azerbaijan (5-0) and Estonia (5-0) last year, though three modest corner tallies were sandwiched in between (2, 3 and 2), so don’t expect them to run riot in that department.

Ireland also won six corners to the Belgians’ two when the sides met in Dublin in March 2022.

Burnley’s Josh Cullen is Ireland’s first-choice midfield anchor and alongside being tasked with setting the tempo for the Boys in Green, the 27-year-old is chief destroyer out-of-possession.

Cullen fouled at a rate of 1.80 times per European Championships qualifier and 1.40 times per Nations League appearance last year, while he has also collected three yellow cards in his last 13 run-outs in green.

The ex-West Ham youngster has also been cautioned regularly for Burnley at club level this term (six), so expect him to be in the thick of the action again on Saturday against his combative Belgian counterparts.

Everton’s Amadou Onana looks the likeliest candidate to bring some muscle to proceedings for the visitors. The 22-year-old has been something of a foul machine for the Toffees in the Premier League this season, though the marauding midfielder throws tackles in with equal ferocity for his country.

Onana committed 1.80 fouls per appearance in the Euro 2024 qualifiers and he could hurtle his way to an eighth booking of the campaign, for club and country, if he sticks his foot in with the same kind of aggression in Dublin this weekend.