Ireland aim to close cat Trap

COME 9.30pm tonight, the cat should finally be let out of the bag at the Aviva Stadium in order to pack another one for its holidays in Poland and Ukraine next summer.

Barring a cat-astrophe, the fictional moggie introduced by Irish soccer boss Giovanni Trapattoni last Friday — as a metaphor for Ireland’s qualification for the Euro 2012 finals following his team’s 4-0 defeat of Estonia in Tallinn — is gearing up for an energetic performance.

“The cat is in the sack, but the sack is not closed. The cat is in it but it’s open — and it’s a wild cat,” said Trapattoni, something of a wily old animal himself.

Football is indeed a game of two halves and with 90 minutes of the two-leg play-off still to come, the veteran Italian is being careful not to put the proverbial cart before the horse ahead of this evening’s showdown.

A party atmosphere is on the cards at the stadium as the Green Army gears up to celebrate the team’s progress to a major soccer finals for the first time since Japan and South Korea in 2002.

Qualifying should also go some way towards alleviating the bitter disappointment felt at Ireland’s exit to Thierry Henry’s “Hand of God” in 2009 and the team’s largely unhappy history with play-offs.

Estonia’s hopes of mounting a comeback have also been dealt a blow as three of their leading players — goalkeeper Sergei Pareikio and defenders Raio Piiroja and Andrei Stepanov — are suspended.

Estonia’s manager, Tarmo Ruutli, yesterday said his team would try to make a game of it.

“We will try and score and create more possibilities than we did in the home game,” he said.

Estonian fans will clutch at the straw that their team’s best performances during the qualifying round were on the road, with impressive away victories against Serbia and Northern Ireland.

However, given Ireland’s four-goal advantage at kick-off, any scoreline up to a 3-0 defeat to Estonia should leave Trapattoni, the FAI and the entire Irish nation purring like the manager’s fabled cat.