Former Republic of Ireland striker Kevin Doyle believes the Boys in Green can take plenty of lessons from the way in which Morocco have performed at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Atlas Lions became the first African side to reach the last-four in the tournament's history on Saturday and reigning champions France stand between them and an unprecedented appearance in a World Cup final.
Walid Regragui's side have been outstanding defensively, conceding just once - an own goal in the 2-1 win over Canada - and holding the likes of Croatia, Belgium, Spain and Portugal scoreless. Additionally, only Costa Rica have had less of the ball than Morocco during the tournament.
But they have also offered a threat further forward on the counter-attack but not by relying primarily on long balls, with technical talents like Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal and their full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Noussair Mazraoui helping them play through the thirds at speed.
While previewing the upcoming semi-finals on the RTÉ Soccer World Cup Podcast, ex-Wolves and Reading centre-forward Doyle discussed what the Irish side can glean from watching the Moroccans.
"Take inspiration from people like Morocco," he said.
"You go through a list of their players and you go through a list of Ireland's players, much of a muchness in all of them.
"Just because we mightn't have the players, you need to get more than the sum of their parts. I don't think we've managed to get more than the sum of the parts of the Ireland players for a good few years.
"So that's what Stephen Kenny has to do. How does he get more from the players, whether it's have 20% possession and be good on the counter-attack. You don't have to boot the ball.
"Morocco don't boot the ball. They're really solid defensively and really good on the counter-attack.
"Find a way to beat the bigger teams. There's no point in going out and playing the Dutch and the French like they play.
"You have to make it awful and horrible for them while still playing a bit of football, being clever and finding a way to win a game.
"And as I said, that doesn't mean playing like we did near the end of (Giovanni) Trapattoni's era or the end of Martin O'Neill's era when we went very direct and not nice to watch near the end of both reigns.
"You can still play football but (it's) just finding a way to be horrible, defensively strong, not concede silly set-piece goals like we have recently.
"We don't have to play out from the back with the keeper every single time we get the ball. We can mix it up a bit more and somehow get the players inspired to get a result because that's what the manager has to do to keep his job.
"There's no point saying, 'I'm developing Irish football and we're playing lovely now, we're still getting beat but we're playing lovely'. You have to win games as well on top of all that.
"There is a way. It can be done. It's not impossible as teams seem to have shown through history and are showing again in this World Cup."
Right now, before they face Ireland in Euro 2024 qualifying next March, France have two competitive games left at this World Cup, including Wednesday's semi-final against Morocco.
The Netherlands meanwhile exited at the quarter-final stage after a gripping but tempestuous penalty shootout defeat to Argentina.
The Dutch and Ireland do not lock horns until next Autumn and Ronald Koeman will have returned as manager after veteran Louis van Gaal's tenure came to an end at the end of this tournament.
But has Doyle's perception of the Dutch been changed by seeing them regularly at this World Cup?
"It's what I expected. They got to a quarter-final and knocked out by penalties.They're a good team with good players.," he said.
"He's a good manager as well, Ronald Koeman, so you'd nearly prefer Louis van Gaal to still be in charge.
"A new manager gets players on their toes. Sometimes you can have that World Cup hangover. That's what we're hoping for with Ireland playing France in March that (they) get to a World Cup final, a few players retire and it takes them six months to get going again.
"You'd hope for the same with the Dutch. But when they've got a new manager, that gets everyone on their toes again so that would be my worry for us against them."
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