Carling Nations Cup
29.05.2011 at 18:30 - Aviva Stadium
Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has made four changes to his side ahead of Sunday's Carling Nations Cup decider with Scotland.
The two nations are tied on six points having won their opening two games, but Republic hold the upper hand with a superior goal difference.
Scotland therefore must beat the tournament hosts at the Aviva Stadium to win the competition, but will be in a confident mood after Wednesday night's 3-1 defeat of Wales.
Trapattoni's men humiliated Northern Ireland 5-0 in their previous outing, but the Italian will nonetheless experiment with a different side.
Damien Delaney, Kevin Foley, Seamus Coleman and Keith Treacy, who each started in Tuesday's Dublin debacle, will make way for new blood.
Defender Darren O'Dea comes in having won his battle for fitness after an ankle injury while Birmingham's Keith Fahey slots into midfield.
Wolves winger Stephen Hunt comes off the bench to play on the left while Portsmouth's Liam Lawrence replaces Coleman on the right. Levein
Counterpart Craig Levein made six second-half changes against Wales, but is expected to name a similar starting line-up.
Kenny Miller, who scored against Wales, will captain the side once again in the absence of Darren Fletcher, and boss Levein insists his team are confident they can win.
"I've got players who are high on confidence because of their individual performances throughout last season," he said.
"When you have players who are confident, then my job becomes an awful lot easier.
"A lot of people spoke about the difference between the first half and the second half in the game the other night but I didn't feel there was a huge difference between the two, except that we didn't capitalise on the goalscoring opportunities that we had.
"The one thing about the players we've got, every time they take to the field they do their utmost to help each other and try to win matches. That, again, makes my job a little bit easier."
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