Whelan believes in the Italian way for Republic

Republic of Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan knows which manager he would rather be playing for on Saturday in the World Cup play-off as he lauded Giovanni Trapattoni’s Italian system of being hard to beat.

The Stoke midfielder said of the Republic of Ireland coach: “Maybe it’s an Italian thing making teams hard to beat and we have gone unbeaten in the group. That’s something we haven’t done in a long time, so on Saturday and Wednesday they are going to be difficult games for the French.