Trap: The same again please...only better

FROM Andorra to Armenia might be a short step alphabetically but there will be a world of difference in the challenge facing Ireland at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow evening, after Friday’s night’s Group B results effectively turned this final qualifying game into a play-off for the play-offs.

The contrasts between the two sides could hardly be more acute, not least in the stand-out fact that an Irish team which is on a record run of eight clean sheets will come up against an Armenian side which has banged in 21 goals over the course of qualifying, 11 of them in the last three games. (Incidentally, an awkward stat for those who have Ireland pegged primarily as a defensive side, is that with 13 goals, Trapattoni’s team are second on the Group B scoring table behind tomorrow night’s visitors, two ahead of Russia and seven ahead of Slovakia).

On the face of it, the fact that a draw will be enough for qualification should play to all of Ireland’s strengths, with defensive solidity allied to the direct style of play which undid Armenia in Yerevan, seeming the ideal recipe to yield at least the minimum requirement of a ninth clean sheet in a row.

But Trapattoni insists he will be looking for more, arguing that it would be a serious mistake to go into the game with the mentality that a draw would suffice.

Rather, he wants to see Ireland start with the same kind of high-tempo approach which rocked Andorra on Friday but without the drop-off in intensity which caused him to remonstrate with his players at half-time in the Pyrenees.

“Okay, maybe Armenia have different defenders but with McGeady, Duff, Doyle and (if fit) Keane, we can play this quick, two-touch football, why not?” he said.

“We have this quality so even though it will be a different opponent, I want the same approach.

“Of course, it also depends on the opposition and we know that Armenia have good quality, they shoot from distance and they score very good goals. But I have trust in our balance, in our attitude on the pitch and in how we can be superior. It’s important that we play like we did against teams like Italy, Croatia and France.

“Armenia are not superior to France and we didn’t deserve to lose against them. Our confidence lies in this.”

Trapattoni also believes that Ireland’s trump card will be its combination of young blood and experience against an Armenian side which, for all its youthful verve and the impressive alacrity with which it has grown up in public, has never had to play in as high-stakes a game as this.

“Our team is a good mix of senior and young players,” said Trapattoni. “We have enthusiasm and players who never give up but we also know when to be calm at the difficult moments. When I was starting out in my career at 20-years-old, I played with two or three older, senior players. I could run and run but they were a calming influence, helping me through the difficult moments. This is the ideal mix. Yes, the young have strength and enthusiasm, but it’s not enough.”

If the sense of occasion is to inspire the home side and rattle the opposition then Trapattoni will hope that encouraging reports of the Aviva being close to full tomorrow night do indeed bear fruit.

“There is a specific economic situation and we have to live with that,” he said. “We cannot let it affect our game. But Irish supporters are great, their warmth is fantastic and they can be our 12th man.’’

As for the 11 men on the pitch, Trapattoni will repeat the message he gave to them in the dressing room in Andorra .

“It is what I have always said: this is the game of your life. I said it before the 90 minutes against Andorra and I will say it again before the 90 minutes against Armenia. Treat this as the game of your life. To succeed, we must have this approach, this thought, this mentality.”

One noteworthy irony ahead of the final round of group games is that it was Armenian objections at the original fixture meeting which forced UEFA to intervene and impose a schedule which has very much worked in Ireland’s favour by ensuring that the team played and won in Yerevan in the opening game — when the home side were still finding their feet — and which now requires the Armenians to play the decisive game between the two sides in Dublin.

“That’s true,” Trapattoni conceded. “We wanted another system but the draw decided”.

But then, with a thin smile, he added a caveat. “But it also means Russia play Andorra in the last game.”