Quinn confident of World Cup progress

Former Republic of Ireland striker Niall Quinn remains confident the national side will qualify for the World Cup.

Brian Kerr’s team were beaten 2-1 in a friendly by Italy last night and Quinn admitted they must make a stronger start in their crunch qualifier against France next month.

The ex-Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland forward said: “France have got all of their players back. They got a boosting win last night.

“(Zinedine) Zidane is back with a goal, they have got a lot of pluses coming into the game and this is a kind of a negative from our point of view.

“But it is Lansdowne Road, it is a vital match and we have won those in the past, and we have got the results we needed in the past.

“And I am still confident we can do it.”

The 39-year-old said the entire team must be really up for the challenge in the Group Four showdown against the French on September 7.

He added: “What that game told me last night is we have to start far better against France, we have to be really up for it, I think we were asleep a little bit.

“Most people would agree that the players didn’t get out of the traps at all and Italy looked a mile better than us.

“We have no business going to World Cups if that happens more than once. So hopefully it is a blip and the players will be really up for the French game.”

After the side’s defeat by Italy, Quinn said he had hoped the manager, Kerr, who experimented with a 4-3-3 formation, would have used different tactics for the friendly game.

He said: “It is such an important game in three weeks’ time I would have hoped he would have played with two forwards last night, just to get maybe Clinton (Morrison) more chances on goal, or maybe Stephen Elliot, in case he has to come on if Robbie (Keane) is injured next month.

“I think that was a disappointing thing, that he played a system I hope won’t be used in a few weeks’ time.”

Quinn said the Irish team often performed better as the underdogs in crunch matches.

He added: “There was Holland a few years ago when we had to go and do it and we were down to 10 men.

“So sometimes when things seem to be down we are at our best. We are probably better as the underdogs in many ways and the French will be cock-a-hoop.

“And it is different to two weeks ago when we thought all those players were not going to be there.”

Quinn said the Irish side would not want to be known as the team that qualified for the World Cup because the French did not have any of their star players.

He said: “They’ll want to get through against France with all their stars, it even adds more spice to the game.

“We have looked at this game for months and months now thinking how great it is going to be but now in the last week because of what happened there it is even getting bigger.

“I can’t wait for it.”