Tardelli: Irish face giant challenge
The Italian has repeated his criticism of Fifa’s decision to seed the play-off draw and has also drawn a line under his two-year feud with France boss Raymond Domenech.
Yet Tardelli remains confident that coach Giovanni Trapattoni will achieve the target for which he was appointed, namely qualifying the Irish for South Africa 2010.
“If Ireland appointed a manager with Trapattoni’s pedigree, it’s because they wanted to get to the World Cup, no matter whether it’s directly or through the play-offs,” he said. “That said, nobody reminded us about that every day. Everybody has acted just right, the officials, the press, the supporters. There has been no unnecessary pressure, just respect. Ireland have done everything to create the best conditions for us.”
And Tardelli is optimistic that the memory of Italy U21s’ 2-1 victory over a French side coached by Domenech in the 2000 Olympics qualifying, back in November 1999, will actually help Ireland now – even though eight years after the game, Domenech said the fixture has ‘a bought referee’.
“When I was the Italy U21s coach, we came up against William Gallas and Thierry Henry,” he remembered.
“They were already very strong. The whole French team was great. Nicolas Anelka couldn’t even get a game! The French team was probably better than us, but we had some luck and we managed to qualify for the 2000 Olympics.
“Two years ago, Raymond Domenech said the ref had been bought by Italy. You know, I didn’t really listen to that stuff. When I think back on those two games, I recall two very tough games, but with fair play. At the end of the game, I congratulated the French players and told them they deserved to go as much as us – and that they probably had played better. But in football, the best teams don’t always win.
“If Domenech really thought the ref was paid, it’s crazy. It’s impossible to imagine that a federation like the Italian one would do that kind of things. We are talking about a big game! Players did their best.
“Saying that kind of thing is like spitting on their shirts and it’s not worthy of any more comment from me. There is no chance that a row like that will happen before France-Ireland.
“We are only thinking about football, everybody here will be behind us, as they will also be in Paris I’m sure.”
Tardelli, speaking in today’s edition of France Football magazine!, went on to describe France’s performances in Group 7 qualifying as ‘average’ but warned that injury to winger Franck Ribery will not weaken their opponents that much.
“France’s average results in their group count for nothing now,” he said. “France has an exceptional team, with players from the biggest teams in the world: Benzema at Madrid, Henry at Barcelona, Malouda and Anelka at Chelsea, Ribery at Bayern.
“Ribery is injured but that doesn’t change anything, because he will be replaced by another player of great quality. Les Bleus have 20, 30, 40 players of very high quality! One injury wouldn’t be a problem for a team like that.”
Tardelli reiterated his reasons for his upset at Fifa’s decision to seed the draw and keep top sides France, Portugal, Russia and Greece apart.
“I totally understand that Fifa decided to name seeded teams according to their rankings,” he explained.
“What we didn’t like was that the rules changed midway through the competition. At the start of the group, that was the rule. And everything changed near the end. [If] you have a free draw, you can have Portugal facing France and one of the biggest teams in the world could be out of the World Cup. Fifa didn’t want to take that risk.”
And though Ireland themselves went through the group unbeaten, Tardelli had some regrets that his side did not catch Italy at the top of the group. “The table from the group stage was logical, with Italy finishing first.
“We can have some regrets from the game against Italy at home, because they equalised at the end of the game.
“The 1-1 draw against Bulgaria was also frustrating. Had we avoided some little mistakes, we could have put more pressure on Italy right to the end of the group stages.”
But for now, Tardelli is only looking forward: no more talking about the row with Domenech, the dropped points to Italy, the annoyance at the seeding system.
“We won’t give in cheaply,” he concluded.
“Ireland will play with our heads held high, knowing everything is possible – even if this is David against Goliath.
“France are terrific opponents. But they should be warned: we don’t fear them.”
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