Irish eyes down for D-Day

IT is ‘D’ for ‘draw’ day today as Ireland’s World Cup play-off destiny is decided at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. The draw for the two-legged games will begin at 1pm and will be followed by a separate draw to determine which sides will play at home in the first legs. The games are scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 14 and Wednesday, November 18.

The FAI will be represented in Zurich this afternoon by President David Blood and Chief Executive John Delaney. Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has decided against attending the draw himself. Last week he said that he was a superstitious man and didn’t want to jinx Ireland’s hopes of gaining the most favourable outcome.

He pointed out that the last time he’d attended a World Cup draw – as manager of Italy, ahead of the finals in Japan and Korea in 2002 – the Azzurri had subsequently ended up on the wrong end of a number of contentious refereeing decisions in the tournament itself before finally bowing out in controversial circumstances to South Korea.