Mick McCarthy believes a rejuvenated Republic of Ireland can sabotage Denmark’s qualification hopes.
The Boys in Green sit top of Group D after two games and have a five-point advantage over the Danes heading to Copenhagen in June.
Denmark have only played one game and showed great spirit to draw 3-3 away to Switzerland on Tuesday.
Ireland’s World Cup play-off conquerors were 3-0 down with six minutes to go in Basel but stunned the Swiss with an incredible fightback.
But asked if Ireland can lead from the front in this campaign, McCarthy said: “That’s what we’re going to try and do. It’s lovely being top after two games.”
And piling the pressure on Tottenham star Christian Eriksen and his international team-mates, McCarthy added: “It would be important anyway for Denmark to win.
“But if we’re five points ahead of them, they wouldn’t want to lose that’s for sure. We’re going to try (to win there).
“But I can’t affect Denmark or Switzerland, two bloomin’ good sides who are capable of coming here and beating us.
“I can only affect our players and clearly we’ve have had an effect on them as we’ve got some good performances and two good victories.”
Ireland will prepare for Denmark on June 7 and Gibraltar in Dublin three days later at a warm-weather training camp in Portugal in late May.
But McCarthy doesn’t know yet if he’ll stick with the tight group he had this week, or throw the doors open to a wider squad and assess all options.
“It depends,” he added. “The Championship finishes on May 5 and the Premier League on the Ireland boss Mick McCarthy wants to sabotage Denmark’s qualification hopes 12th and there may be players in the Championship play-offs.
"I might have to take players who’ve not been involved in that and let other players come in later. That's a bit of a conundrum for me to solve."
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