Brady puts refs under spotlight

Liam Brady is hoping for better luck with referees as the Republic of Ireland attempt to book there trip to the World Cup finals at the expense of France.

The Republic’s assistant manager still has painful memories of decisions which did not go his country’s way during his own playing days, some of them against the French.

Ireland are still smarting from FIFA’s last-ditch decision to seed the play-off games, ensuring Giovanni Trapattoni’s men were guaranteed a clash with one of the stronger teams left in the competition.

However, Brady is happy with the appointment of German referee Felix Brych for tomorrow’s opener at Croke Park, and Swede Martin Hansson for the return leg in Paris on Wednesday.

He said: “I have had the experience of playing against the French before in tournaments gone by going back more than 20 years, and the one thing we didn’t get was good referees.

“But now the focus is on the referees in these two games, particularly with the fact that FIFA changed the seeding arrangements so they made it a bit easier for the more glamorous teams.

“But having said that, the referees are at the top of the game. They are two Champions League referees.

“The spotlight will be on them and I am pleased about that because that’s a very important aspect of these games.

“They will be thoroughly scrutinised because of what has gone on, and I fully expect to have better refereeing than when I was a player.”

The Irish go into the games knowing they are underdogs, but relishing the chance to bloody the nose of one of Europe’s big boys for the first time since they shocked Holland back in 2001.

But while they know they will have a major task on their hands to counter the brilliance of the likes of Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema, they are confident they can make life just as difficult as they did for World champions Italy during their Group 8 campaign.

Asked if they have match-winners within their ranks, Brady said: “For sure, yes. We have scored in most games in the qualifying campaign.

“We are very strong at set-pieces – I don’t think they [France] are particularly strong at set-pieces, so that’s going to be a very important area that we will be concentrating on.

“I am sure they will be trying to counteract that, but I certainly think there is an advantage there.”