Albacete ready for 'whole of Ireland'

Albacete crossed for a vital try to set the three-time European champions on their way to a crushing 42-16 victory over French rivals Stade Francais Paris in the quarter-finals.

Now the second-row admits he expects a tough test in the last four against the reigning champions on 1 May, when he hopes to make up for the bitter disappointment of losing to Munster in the 2008 Heineken Cup final.

That was the second time the 35-times capped forward had fallen short in a major European final, having been on the losing side with Pau against Sale Sharks in the 2005 Amlin Challenge Cup final.

"I saw Leinster play on Friday night and they are impressive - they are virtually the whole team for Ireland," said Albacete, who is hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow Pumas Federico Mendez (Bath 1998 and Northampton Saints 2000), Martin Scelzo (Northampton Saints 2000) and Omar Hassan (Toulouse 2005) in picking up a Heineken Cup winners medal.

"We know the qualities of players like Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and Jamie Heaslip. They can make the difference at any time and so it will be a really hard game for us."

Despite their convincing quarter-final triumph, Toulouse were made to dig deep in a hard-fought opening period against the Parisians. But Albacete has hailed the strength of Guy Noves' squad as they stormed into an emphatic 29-6 second-half scoreline.

"We lost the battle in the rucks in the first half against Stade. We were not efficient, aggressive enough and Stade were the better team. We will not be able to start so badly in the first 20 minutes next time," added Albacete..

"Yannick Jauzion's try on the stroke of half-time was massive to us psychologically. Then we found the gaps in the second half. The depth of the bench was good and the lads who came on brought an incredible energy to the game. It's a huge advantage to us."