Tardelli: Irish face giant challenge

IRELAND’S assistant coach Marco Tardelli has claimed his side have a ‘David v Goliath’ challenge on theirhands to get past France in the World Cup play-offs next month.

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.