Kilbane: We fear nobody

KEVIN KILBANE insists the Republic of Ireland await today’s draw for the World Cup play-offs afraid of no-one.

The draw, to be made at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich at lunchtime, has been controversial following the decision to introduce seedings.

Trapattoni has led the criticism of a system that was announced only last month, but international centurion Kilbane is confident his side will prevail whoever they draw.

“We knew from the results last weekend who the top four sides were probably going to be,” said the Hull player. “We are not happy about the way the seeding has gone but you have to move on from that. We have got a big draw to come and we will look at that and see who we get.

“You can’t really look at any side in terms of preference. They have all got dangerous players and qualities. Whoever we get, we get, and I think we are confident of beating anyone over two legs.

“You focus on yourselves and be the team you have been throughout the campaign. Hopefully that will be enough. We’ve got a lot of players in the squad who are hungry and ready for a big tournament.”

Trapattoni described the seeding system as the “death of football”, while Republic goalkeeper Shay Given branded them “disgusting” and “totally unfair on the smaller nations”.

But allowing for the fact seedings were in place at the same stage in 2006 and are also used for the qualifying groups and finals, FIFA’s error appears to be leaving it so late before confirming they would be used today.

Trapattoni and his players have been careful not to express any preference on who they might face, though Greece would be the obvious choice.

They are not the force that won the 2004 European Championships, are an ageing side still reliant on set-pieces and in 16th place are the lowest ranked of the seeded teams.

France and Portugal have proved vulnerable during qualifying, the former undermined by internal disputes and the latter struggling to score, so the Republic should not be intimidated.

Whoever the Republic meet, midfielder Stephen Hunt believes there will be no margin for error.

“We can’t afford to make mistakes in the play-offs because you are out, it’s as simple as that,” said Hunt

“We have to be ruthless and mentally strong coming down the final stretch.”

Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s record signing Cristiano Ronaldo leads a list of 30 nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Ten Premier League players – Andrey Arshavin, Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Nemanja Vidic – have been short-listed, with the winner to be announced on December 1.