Former Mayo footballer Keith Higgins believes James Horan's side will need to make a fast start if they are to have any chance of toppling Dublin in Saturday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final.
The Dubs, who are aiming for a seventh title in a row, have come out on top in all the recent head-to-heads against Mayo in what have more often than not been tight games.
But speaking on RTÉ's The Championship programme, Higgins feels a young Mayo outfit have a chance of claiming victory, although that will be dependent on a good start and finding a means of keeping the scoreboard ticking over to overhaul a potent Dublin attack.
"I'm a bit torn on it to be quite honest. While with your Mayo hat on, you'd love to say that there's a really good Gaelic team coming there, they play the way James Horan wants them to play - high pressure game, full of running and high tackling up the pitch - so you'd have to say that if they can bring a performance like they did in the second half against Galway in the Connacht final, if they can get the likes of Paddy (Durcan) driving up from defence, they can cause Dublin problems," he said.
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"I think they really have to have a good start the next day and have a really good first half and probably be ahead at half-time and leading into that third quarter because like we've seen with this Dublin team down through the years, they will just control the game if they get ahead at all.
"(Dublin) will kill any momentum that teams have. They're happy to hold onto the ball for 2-3 minutes to build a score and drain the life out of teams.
"So with a Mayo hat on, you'd have to say they've a chance but I suppose the one area where you might see them struggling is wondering where they'll get enough scores to beat Dublin.
"People are talking about Dublin being on the demise and if you lose the likes of a Jack McCaffrey, Stephen Cluxton and some of these guys, obviously you don't have the same type of panel.
"But at the same time I think they're still averaging 1-19 a game in the championship so far. So to get 18 or 19 scores against Dublin is going to be a tough task I think."
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