Seamus Coleman is confident the Republic of Ireland team can handle the threat of Wales star Gareth Bale.

The Irish host Welsh in World Cup qualifying in Dublin on Friday night and much of the talk has surrounded Real Madrid's Bale and how he can be stopped.

But Everton full-back Coleman, the Ireland captain, believes the team as a whole can pull off a shackling job as they did against Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Euro2016 in the summer.

"We are a team which has played against big players in the past. I remember when we played Sweden in the summer, all the talk was about Zlatan and it's quite similar this time," Coleman said.

"We are fully focused on our job and looking forward to the game. As I said, we were getting asked the same questions in the summer about certain players and you have got another 10 players on the pitch you have got to worry about.

"We know he's a world class player and we are going to have to be careful and get tight to him in certain areas, but we can't just fully focus on Gareth Bale.

"They have got a lot of good players and we need to make sure they worry about us as well."