Republic of Ireland assistant coach Damien Duff says the team's qualifying group draw for the 2022 World Cup "could have been an awful lot worse."
Speaking ahead of RTÉ's coverage of the Champions League clash between RB Leipzig and Manchester United, the Ireland assistant coach also remarked that it's up to the national team management not to make any more motivational videos, "even if they're based on true, historical events that you should be proud of" as they can be "very offensive to some people".
At yesterday's World Cup qualification draw, Ireland were dropped into Group A, containing reigning European champions Portugal, second seeds Serbia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
It was disclosed today that World Cup hosts Qatar will also be included in the group, playing home and away games against all five teams but with no points at stake.
Serbia ended up topping the Republic of Ireland's last World Cup qualification group, with Martin O'Neill's eventually pipping Wales to the playoff spot in dramatic fashion before losing to Denmark.
Republic of Ireland assistant coach Damien Duff says our #WorldCup2022 draw "could have been an awful worse" and jokes that the staff will avoid making any more motivational videos. pic.twitter.com/dByR7NPsKK
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) December 8, 2020
However, the Serbs failed to qualify for Euro 2020, despite being placed in League C of the Nations League, losing their playoff on penalties to Scotland.
Duff, who worked as a first team coach at Celtic in 2019-20, watched those playoff games and that the evidence from that suggests our group could have been much harder.
"Having a lot of friends in Scotland after my last couple of years, I watched the (Scotland-Serbia) game closely and Scotland definitely deserved to go through.
"We've made life pretty difficult by dropping from second down to third seeds but the draw could have been an awful lot worse.
"The Qatar games aren't an issue because they're at the end of each block."
While the new management has enjoyed a difficult start to life, with only three points collected from six Nations League games and the national side failing to win a match in a calendar year for the first time since 1971, Duff is confident about the early signs.
The assistant boss says the truest marker of Ireland's potential thus far was the performance in Bratislava, where the team performed well before going out on penalties.
"There's a lot of doom and gloom around the football team at the minute. But I just think after the amount of injuries, Covid cases - everyone's reference (point) should be the Slovakia game.
"A good team that dominate teams around Europe. We've gone there, dominated them, playing football the right way, creating chances, playing through them. Not just playing direct stuff, not just crossing balls for the sake of crossing. We played attractive football the way people want to play it.
"In between now and March, it's just hoping lads get game-time, get plenty of minutes, stay fit and stay well. Get Seamus (Coleman) back firing for Everton."
And he had a word on the recent motivational video controversy, which flared up after Ireland's loss in Wembley.
"And it's obviously up to us staff not to make any motivational videos because even if they're based on true historic events that you should be proud of, they can be very offensive to some people.
"So, we'll stay away from that next time in March."
