Trap likes the luck of the draw

BOSS Giovanni Trapattoni has given an unreserved thumbs-up to Ireland’s fixture schedule for the 2012 European Championship campaign.

Yesterday’s draw at the UEFA congress in Tel Aviv sees the campaign book-ended by away and home games against Armenia, with the key matches against top seeds Russia and Slovakia turning up as Tuesday and Friday double-headers in October of this year and September of 2011. Ireland’s first meeting with the Russians will be in Dublin on October 8, while there is a notable bonus in that the trip to Moscow will be in early September of next year, meaning Trapattoni’s team will be spared even the early effects of the Russian winter. Yesterday’s draw also means that little Andorra will provide the opposition for the first competitive international at the new Aviva Stadium, on September 7 of this year.

“The draw is very good,” says Trapattoni. “I think the first away game in Armenia is like the game the last time against Georgia, and then we have Andorra at home. For me it is a very, very good start because in September our players are fit. The players will have been playing with their clubs and normally our players at fit at that time. That is very good news and important news. The first three games – Armenia away, and Andorra and Russia home – I think give us a good chance to gain an advantage. I hope we do, it is a possibility.”

Trapattoni concedes that the double-headers against Russia and Slovakia will probably be pivotal in shaping the outcome of Group B “These games will be important but we must arrive at those games with an advantage,” he points out. “We believe we could be potentially in a good position going into the first Russia home game and then the second time we play in September 2011. After that we have Andorra away and Armenia at home and it will be a good opportunity to finish the group well. But the important thing is to have the advantage going into those games.”

Trapattoni doesn’t think the extra flights incurred by the absence of an away double-header pose any particular problem.

“Our players are used to it with their clubs,” he says. “Normally they play (international games) on Wednesday and Saturday and then they come back immediately to their clubs. They can be travelling for hours after games. Our flights will only be three or four hours. I have experience and I can give them a little rest in the two or three days between games. I am not afraid of this situation with flights because every player is used to playing Saturday and Wednesday. I have had many teams in this situation, we had two or three days before the next game, and we were okay.”

Overall, Trapattoni is of the view that this campaign should prove less taxing than the road to World Cup qualification which ended with the bitter disappointment of Paris.

“I think this draw is difficult but I think it is a better draw than the last World Cup,” he observes. “I think the last one was definitely harder with the likes of Italy and then the Montenegro and Bulgaria games falling at potentially difficult times. We’re not underestimating the opposition – Slovakia are a big threat and are going to the World Cup. There were some quite difficult fixtures in the last campaign and this one is easier.”

The manager also believes that his side is entitled to take confidence from the progress they made over the course of the World Cup campaign.

“I think the one thing we have is a huge belief in our ability,” he says. “It is clear that, from the beginning when we played Georgia until now, we’ve made enormous steps forward. You look at how we faced up to Bulgaria, Montenegro, Italy and then France and lately Brazil, you can see this is a team that believes in itself and that will serve us well going into the qualification.”

And since, sadly, we’ll always have Paris and, outrageously, UEFA have already decreed that the seeded teams will have home advantage in the second leg of the Euro play-offs, is Giovanni Trapattoni especially anxious to secure the one automatic qualifying spot this time around? “Given that the squad has grown so much, it is in our heads to avoid a play-off,” he says, adding, “and we believe we can avoid a play-off as well.”

While Ireland will open their campaign with games against the lesser lights of Armenia and Andorra, group heavyweights Russia and Slovakia meet as early as the second round of games, in Moscow on September 7. And they meet again, this time in Bratislava, in the penultimate round of the campaign, on October 7, 2011. Four days later, while Ireland finish at home to Armenia, Slovakia have a tricky away game in Macedonia and the Russians conclude with what should be a home banker against Andorra.