Jim Crawford has claimed that Ireland were seen as the softest of the Euro 2023 play-off options ahead of Tuesday's draw.
But he is ready to prove the rest of Europe wrong when his Under-21s take on Israel in the September deciders.
The draw was widely seen here as a favourable one for the Boys in Green - with nations such as Croatia, the Czech Republic and Denmark avoided.
Israel finished their group campaign with an identical record to Ireland - six wins and three defeats from 10 qualifiers.
And just like Crawford’s side, two of those came against their group’s top seeds, Germany, while the other was a shock reversal away to the team that finished second-from-bottom.
In Israel’s case, it was Latvia, while in Ireland’s it was Montenegro.
The first-leg will take place in Tallaght Stadium - and Crawford hit out at the perception of his side by the others in the draw.
“The talk from other countries in Nyon before the draw was that Ireland were the preferable opponent to be drawn against - that in itself is motivation for us,” he said.
“We want a big crowd there to support us because we can't lose sight of the challenge Israel will pose and the crowd will play their part.”
While the draw could have handed Ireland a much bigger challenge, Crawford insisted: “Israel will be a tough opponent, there's no mistaking that.
“They finished above Poland and Hungary in their group, who are very good teams at this level, and they also lost narrowly to the group winners Germany in each of their games.
“They had five players called up to their senior team during this campaign which shows how well they have done.”
The two legs will take place between September 19 and 27.
The last meetings between these two sides at Under-21 level were during the qualification campaign for the 2019 finals.
Declan Rice was a part of the side that won 4-0 on Irish soil, before losing 3-1 in Israel.
Ireland reached their first ever European Under-21 play-offs by beating Sweden to second place. They could have qualified automatically but lost 4-1 to Italy last week.
