Santa Cruz: 'Unlucky' Ireland should be at World Cup

Paraguay's Roque Santa Cruz has acknowledged that the Republic of Ireland are "unlucky" not to be in the World Cup next month.

The Manchester City striker was speaking after Paraguay's 2-1 defeat to Giovanni Trapattoni's men in the RDS last night.

Santa Cruz said: "They did a fantastic job in the qualification, and everybody knows how unlucky Ireland were to not be in the World Cup."

He also said that Trap's players looked a bit tired and put that down to failing to qualify for the tournament.

He said: "They played very good, they moved forward quickly, but I think they were a bit tired because they are not playing in the World Cup and they haven't been training for it for the past couple of weeks."

On his own team's performance, Santa Cruz said they knew it would be a good work-out for them.

He said: "We need to play against teams like Italy and Slovakia and other European teams who have a similar kind of game. We were unlucky with the first goal, but I think it was a good experience."