Azzurri blues can help against Les Bleus

IRELAND’S painful Italian lesson can prove invaluable against the French. So says Richard Dunne, and Liam Brady wholeheartedly agrees.

The Irish team went from ecstasy to agony in the space of three minutes at Croke Park last month, squandering a lead against the world champions right at the death.

And, as far as the Aston Villa centre-half is concerned, it won’t be allowed to happen again.

“If we get ourselves into a similar situation against France, and especially with the prize that is on offer, I’m sure that we know now what we have to do,” he said.

“We probably just got caught up in the whole atmosphere that night where it was so good, beating the world champions, and we thought we could probably go and score more and we got caught. If we were to get in front tomorrow, I think that we’d have learned – without having to explain it to people on the pitch – where we need to be putting the ball.”

In the immediate wake of Gilardino’s equaliser, a devastated Irish dressing room felt the 2-2 draw was more like a defeat but, one month on, Brady thinks the bitter and still fresh experience of that setback can work to Ireland’s advantage in the play-off.

“Mistakes are going to be costly when the pressure comes on and we have to handle that,” said the assistant manager. “That’s why the Italian game was a great lesson for us. We didn’t hold on to our lead when we had it and things could have been done differently, and the manager made that known to the players. I think that the Italian game, in terms of belief and the lessons learned, will stand us in good stead over these two games.”

Still, Dunne needs no telling that Ireland are going to have their work cut out to gain any kind of advantage in Dublin or Paris.

“It’ll be hard,” he said. “It’s one of those things where we need everyone behind us. We realise how big it is, how big a deal it is for the country. We need to translate that out on to the pitch and make sure that France know they’ve been in a game.

“Yeah, they’ve got loads of attacking options and it would be foolish if we didn’t think they will have plenty of the ball in both games. As much as we want to try to dominate them, they’re probably the more comfortable team on the ball. So we know we’re going to be spending long periods defending and having to concentrate and work hard.

“But that’s the one thing we’re willing to do. Every one of our squad is willing to work really hard for each other. We know it’s going to be difficult but we know that there’s not one of us who will come off the pitch next Wednesday not having given everything in the two games.”

AS a seasoned Premier League performer, Dunne knows first-hand what to expect from the likes of Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka.

“I know what they can do, I’ve seen what they can do,’’ he said. “I know it’s going to be really difficult, so it’s down to everyone to work as a team. There will be times when players are going to skip past ours and we need to make sure that a team-mate is always there to back them up and help them. That’s the whole game plan: get it into our heads that it’s going to be hard but it’s going to be worth it in the end, so we have to fight for each other.”

And should the Irish be assailed by doubt, Dunne suggests they need look no further than to the silver-haired gent in the home dugout.

“The manager is a winner, always has been,” he said. “That’s what we’re following. Everyone listens to him, everyone believes. He’s told us all the way through that we’re a decent side, we’re hard to beat, and we’ve proved that. We’ve got 100% faith in our manager and we believe he’s the man who can lead us.

“Tomorrow night, it’s going to be a mental battle and if we look around and look at their squad and start worrying, we could lose before we even get out there. We’ve just got to believe in what our manager does for us. He’ll be telling us all the way through that we can win and we will win. That’s what we all have to believe, there’s no point in having any ounce of fear. From now on, we have to believe that, come next Wednesday night, we’ll be going to the World Cup.”

Of course, Dunne has been to a World Cup before but he never got to kick a ball in anger in Japan and Korea in 2002. All the more reason then for the 30-year-old Tallaght man to crave success against the French. “Now, at this stage of my career, this is definitely as big as it gets really,” he said. “It’s important for me and it’s important for a lot of the players that, over the two legs, we get the right result.”