Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews has urged his national teammates to fight for their lives against Spain this Thursday.

Ireland are in danger of dropping out of the European Championships this week following their damaging 3-1 defeat to Croatia on Sunday.

Giovanni Trapattoni's side are also due to play Italy before the two quarter-final qualifiers of the group are decided.

"We're obviously up against three fantastic sides in our group," said Andrews. "Croatia showed that at times against us and Spain will probably provide an even sterner test.

"But we can play better than we did against Croatia and hopefully we can do that on Thursday. We have to believe we can or else we might as well go back to Dublin now.

"It was always going to be a difficult group and it certainly proved that way against Croatia – now we have an uphill task."

Meanwhile, Trapattoni is convinced that Spain will start Chelsea striker Fernando Torres on Thursday.