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Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni insists his injury-hit team can frustrate Germany in Friday's World Cup qualifier at the Aviva Stadium.
Robbie Keane was the latest withdrawal from the Republic squad on Thursday but Trapattoni remained upbeat.
"With our qualities, we can confront Germany," said the Republic boss.
"I am proud of this team. We have achieved very important results with our quality, with our attitude. That's what we can be proud of."
Skipper Keane's absence means that Stoke's Jonathan Walters looks certain to operate as a lone striker although Trapattoni suggested on Thursday that he could revert to a 4-4-2 formation with Simon Cox also having been named in the starting line-up.
Keane's joined a list of absentees which includes central defenders Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger plus Glenn Whelan and James McClean.
"We can change to 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. I have to be sure that the system is available and that I can change immediately if I need to," said Trapattoni ahead of the clash with the world's second-ranked team.
However, the most likely scenario appears to be that Trapattoni will pack his central midfield with Birmingham's Keith Fahey joining Keith Andrews and James McCarthy in the engine room in an attempt to prevent the Irish being over-run.
"I will be proud if we can win or draw because I have studied particularly what Germany have tried to do, and we must do what we can to contain them," added the Republic manager.
"They have the quality of (Thomas) Muller, (Mesut) Ozil, (Miroslav) Klose, (Mario) Gomez, (Mario) Gotze, (Lukas) Podolski."
Earlier in the week, Republic assistant Marco Tardelli hinted that the Irish would man-mark Real Madrid star Ozil but Trapattoni appeared to play down that suggestion on Thursday.
"I think it's impossible. I was a player and I marked famous players - Pele, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff - but there are players it is impossible to mark.
"Ozil is a player who is very difficult to mark."
With right-back and captain Philipp Lahm suspended, Germany manager Joachim Loew is likely to use Bayern Munich's Jerome Boateng on the right side of defence with Arsenal's Per Mertesacker and Bayern's Holger Badstuber at centre-back.
Loew looks set to persevere with left-back Marcel Schmelzer despite the defender's struggles in the 2-1 qualifier victory over Austria last month.
"He did not play well against Austria," admitted Loew after Schmelzer had allowed Austria's Marko Arnautovic to run riot.
"There aren't many alternatives around at the present, so we have to work with Marcel Schmelzer for the next two, three, four, five months."
In addition to Lahm, Loew is without Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, Lars Bender and Julian Draxler for the Dublin contest.
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