Marco hoping three will be magic number

All the indications are that Ireland will line out with an extra midfielder in a bid to stifle German creativity in the World Cup qualifier at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night.

Giovanni Trapattoni has briefly toyed with formation before but yesterday Marco Tardelli effectively confirmed that Ireland will adopt a 4-3-3 formation against the group favourites, the expectation being that James McCarthy, Keith Andrews and Keith Fahey will be the men charged with putting it into effect.

“I think we need to change something against Germany because the Germans are a very strong team and play 4-3-3,” said the assistant manager yesterday.