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.