Charlton: Last eight spot would be huge

Jack Charlton believes that guiding the Republic of Ireland into the knock-out stages of Euro 2012 would be an achievement to rank alongside Giovanni Trapattoni’s greatest in a distinguished career.

Charlton, who led the country into the later stages of two tournaments, and within eight minutes of the semi-finals of Euro 88 in his celebrated 10-year tenure, isn’t ruling out a scenario where Trapattoni’s outsiders secure an unlikely passage into the last eight.

Calling for a repeat of the memorable victory he oversaw against the Italians in the 1994 World Cup, Charlton said: “They’ve got three very tough games in there, about as difficult as they come, and simply to make it out of that group would be a great achievement in my book and one of which Trap and the players could be rightly proud. I suppose if they’re looking for omens, we beat Italy when we met them in New York, and looking at them now, they’re not as good now.”