O’Neill: Defeatist to cede top spot to Germany

If you were looking to conduct a scientific experiment to measure the national team’s progress from Giovanni Trapattoni to Martin O’Neill, you could hardly do better –or maybe that should be worse — than Dino Zoff did in Nice yesterday when the Italian goalkeeping legend paired Ireland with Germany in Group D of the France 2016 Euro qualifying draw.

Nobody will need reminding that, last time around, Ireland suffered an aggregate 9-1 hammering at the feet of the Germans, in the doomed World Cup qualifying campaign which ended with Trapattoni’s exit from the job.

Now, it falls to Martin O’Neill to see if he can do any better against one of international football’s superpowers, as Ireland look to negotiate their way to one of the two automatic qualifying places in a European Championship Group D which also contains Poland, Scotland, Georgia and newcomers Gibraltar.