Germany holds no fears for Coleman

As one of the men in green who were blown away by a German hurricane in Dublin last October, you might imagine there’d be a certain trepidation on Seamus Coleman’s part about the possibility of a repeat dose in Cologne on Friday.

But if it is a concern, he does a convincing job of hiding it.

“No, it’s happened,” says the Donegal man emphatically. “Everyone gets beaten. The best teams in the world — like Manchester United — get beaten by four or five goals to one. But you don’t go out fearing anyone. I don’t think you can. You go out looking forward to it — to the big occasion, the big stadium and the big players. That’s where you want to be — you want to be at the top.”

Indeed, the memory of that humiliation one year ago can, he feels, form part of Ireland’s motivation in Cologne.

“It wasn’t nice, that feeling we had that night, and we don’t want that again, so we’ll be going out there to play well and to do well for Noel (King) too. It’s his first game and we want to give him a good performance. And, obviously, a big thing as well is, whoever the new manager is going to be, he could be watching on Friday night and on Tuesday night. You want to impress every time you go on the pitch but maybe we can start building now towards France.”

So people wouldn’t be right in assuming that Ireland have nothing to lose on Friday? “No, obviously I know the group is over, but when you play for your country and people are watching, you are under pressure. Every time you play, people will be analysing you and seeing how you do — and you want to impress the new manager. So it’s a very important game for the players.”

Irish football might be on the brink of a new era but Coleman retains respect for the Italian reign just ended.

“He (Giovanni Trapattoni) was brilliant throughout for me and for the team,” says the Everton man. “He nearly got to a World Cup and then got the lads to the European Championships. I sent a text message when he left to thank him personally for giving me the first cap and I wish him well. It is never nice to see any manager go but maybe now the time is right to move on from that and hopefully we can be successful again.”

And what would be Coleman’s definition of success? “I’m hoping that we get to major tournaments, I’m hoping whoever comes in can help us along that way.”