Aiden McGeady has beaten off the challenge of James McClean to claim his place in the starting line-up for the game against Hungary tomorrow night which, barring injuries, will be the team that kicks off Ireland’s challenge for the European Championships in seven days’ time.
The Sunderland wing’s failure to make the team after a late run into the squad was confirmed by Giovanni Trapattoni yesterday after the Ireland team trained at their base in Tuscany for the last time before heading for Budapest today on their way to Poland.
“McClean will be on the bench with the others,” Trapattoni said. “The team that starts against Hungary will be the same team that starts against Croatia, without problems at the last moment.”
That means that Trapattoni has already picked his starting line-up for Ireland’s opening Group C game against Croatia on Sunday and almost certainly it will coincide with the Nos 1 to 11 on the squad’s shirt numbers: Shay Given, Sean St Ledger, Stephen Ward, John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Glenn Whelan, Aiden McGeady, Keith Andrews, Kevin Doyle, Robbie Keane, Damien Duff.
Trapattoni will name the team in Budapest tomorrow and he dismissed concerns that Given’s absence from training yesterday was anything to do with the knee injury he picked up while training in Dublin last month.
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“Shay was a little bit tired. He will play on Monday sure. He made too much training. Also he has some little blisters on the feet. It is better that he has one day’s rest. In the last game [on Tuesday night] Doyle didn’t play and he has fantastically recovered energy. We have recharged the batteries, and you can also see that in how the players played in this training game.”
Trapattoni said that Ireland had a “really good camp”, in contrast to the Italy squad, which was hit by another football corruption scandal last week and was then defeated 3-0 by Russia in a friendly on Friday night in Zurich.
“It would be a great mistake if you think that is the real Italy because we don’t know how they have done in their training camp,” Trapattoni said. “Be sure when we met Italy, Italy will be another team.”
Trapattoni also sounded a bullish note about his own readiness for the task ahead, saying he felt at the height of his managerial powers after more than 30 years in the business. “Now I know more, more situations. I have improved from 10 years ago and also from when I had fantastic players like [Michel] Platini and [Zbigniew] Boniek. We show we can win with the other players.”
Last night, Trapattoni and his assistant, Marco Tardelli, were guests at an open-air question and answer session in Montecatini’s main square, Piazza del Poppolo. Tardelli, asked about Ireland’s chances of qualifying from their group, said: “We are wary of Croatia, but I have a plan that we will draw with Croatia and beat Spain and Italy to finish top of the group.”
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Spurs’ influential forward Luka Modric was missing from the Croatia squad that took on Norway in Oslo last night. The match finished 1-1 after the home side equalised late on.