Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane are set to take charge of the Republic of Ireland for the first time on tonight as they face Latvia in a friendly at the Aviva stadium. The duo, who were officially appointed Giovanni Trapattoni’s successors last week, will be hoping to make a positive start to what will be their first time in the dugout on the international stage.

Both O’Neill and Keane have vast experience managing at club level with relative success and are motivated to succeed at international level with their target being firmly set on steering Ireland to the European championship in France in 2016. Speaking earlier this week after taking his first training session with the team, manager Martin O’Neill spoke about the challenges that lie in wait starting first with Latvia. He said "The players are raring to go; all eyes on Latvia. We did exactly what we intended to do [in training on Tuesday morning]. Roy wanted to work with the players – so did I – and we had a little formula worked out.”

The Latvia game, followed by next week trip to face Poland, will give O’Neill and Keane the perfect chance to make an early assessment about the squad which may be crucial as they don’t have another fixture until the start of next year. O’Neill added “After these two games it's remarkable that the next match we have is not until March. Then I will have time to plan properly for the New Year.”

O’Neill will have to wait to gain a perspective on midfielders Robbie Brady and Darren Gibson, who are both ruled out of the squad due to injury, whilst defender Ciaran Clark has also been side lined with a foot injury. The Northern Irishman remains hopeful that Anthony Pilkington will be fit enough to feature despite struggling with a dead leg.

Republic of Ireland striker and all-time top goal scorer Robbie Keane will continue in his role as captain and will be hopeful that he can add to his impressive tally of 61 international goals against a Latvia side who have no major injury concerns ahead of this intriguing clash.

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