Trapattoni prepares to lead Ireland up a mountain

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI calls it “a speciality game”.

He’s referring to the peculiar circumstances of Ireland’s must-win qualifier in Andorra on Friday, a game which will be played at altitude, on a small pitch, in an 850-capacity stadium, against robust opponents with nothing to play for but national pride and a chance to show the outside world that, whatever the FIFA rankings might say, they aren’t one of the most hapless teams on the planet.

Speaking after the Irish squad’s first training session in Malahide yesterday, Trapattoni said he was confident altitude would not be a problem for the visitors although he conceded “it could be a factor” in terms of its repercussions for the following Tuesday’s final qualifier against Armenia in Dublin.

But, with just two games to go for Ireland to either claim a European Championship play-off place or, with the help of Slovakia, even top Group B, Trapattoni insisted he has no other option now but to revert to the age-old football practice of taking it one game at a time.

Explaining his decision to bring the Irish squad to Andorra from Barcelona only on the eve of Friday’s match, Trapattoni cited medical advice which suggests that preparing for a significant change in altitude ideally requires 10 to 15 days acclimatisation. That being the case, he reasons a late arrival won’t make any difference to the visitors.

“Andorra is at 1,100m,” he said.

“Sometimes in this situation you could have slight problems with breathing but I think with the mentality we have and the young players we have, it won’t be a problem. In my career, I played in Peru, at 2,000m, and I hadn’t a problem. The problem may be in recovering for the second game.

“Another issue is the pitch. I saw our other opponents play there and it was impossible to play well but we can adapt to every situation. But on Friday, it’s not important how we get the result but that we get the result. But we must be disciplined and avoid every silly mistake. Because every week we can see strange results, in England, in Italy. Football is football.”

While Trapattoni is fully focused on Andorra, he will also be keeping tabs on Friday on the Slovakia-Russia game which kicks off an hour and a quarter before Ireland take the field. Naturally, he says, he’s hoping for the Slovak win to put automatic qualification back in Irish hands — a prospect potentially enhanced by news that Russian striker Alexander Kerzhakov misses the game in Zilina after injuring his ankle at the weekend.

However, Trapattoni has no plans to keep his players up to date with events unless, he hinted, Slovakia win and Ireland benefit from the news.

“We in the management team can know but the players might be conditioned by that result so we’re not going to let them know,” he said.

“It’s better if we concentrate on our result. Only if there’s a particularly good result then we can let them know. Regardless, we must put in all our energy to win this game.”

Trapattoni took the opportunity yesterday to respond to Mick McCarthy’s accusation that he used an excuse of lack of fitness to drop Kevin Doyle for the game against Slovakia last month (in the event, first choice striker Shane Long had to pull out with injury and Doyle did start).

But Trapattoni reiterated yesterday that he simply felt the Wolves man still had to reach peak fitness following his long injury lay-off and was like “an empty bottle” after playing the lone frontman role for his club since the start of the season.

“Never in my life have I looked for excuses, that is not my habit,” he said.

“I have respect for McCarthy because every manager must use his players as he sees fit. We didn’t have to play him.

“We have other options. He used Doyle because he has only Doyle. And Doyle was alone in the desert. And you saw Doyle in the last game for us — he was not fit, not in full condition. But I saw Kevin [at Molineux on Sunday] and he is well now, stronger and better.”

In the latest squad news, Jon Walters is struggling with an ankle injury and John O’Shea is also nursing a knock. Richard Dunne, although suspended, will travel to Andorra with the squad while, in the absence of full-backs Kevin Kilbane and Kevin Foley, Paul McShane is called into the panel after recovering from injury at Hull.

Meanwhile, Trapattoni reported that Damien Duff, who recently missed a Fulham game for family reasons, had kept the Irish manager appraised of the situation and, after a stint on the bench for his club on Sunday, joined up with the Irish squad for the two crunch games to come.