FAI chief executive John Delaney has set Giovanni Trapattoni a target of four wins from the five remaining World Cup qualifiers.
By Declan Whooley
While Irish chances of automatic qualification were firmly ended long before David Alaba’s late equaliser at the Aviva the last time out, Delaney has said that the rest of the games, aside from the daunting trip to Germany, should be targeted for a full return of points. Should they manage to do so then the Boys in Green would be likely to qualify for a play-off berth.
Speaking in the Irish Independent this morning, the head honcho admitted that games are running out for Trap and his charges so 12 points is what is required to have any chance of making it to Brazil next summer.
“It would have been a bit easier had we won against Austria, but we move on. Our challenge is to try and win at least four of our last five games,” he said.
“We were very unfortunate to only get two points from the games against Sweden and Austria. We deserved more. But we have the Faroe Islands next (in June) and we should win that. Then, there’s the big double in September when we have Sweden at home and Austria away. Those will be the defining games.”
After that it will be an away trip to Germany in October where little will be expected after the drubbing in Dublin last year while our final game in the group is at home to Kazakhstan four days later.
If we were to gather 12 points from those four fixtures, a big if admittedly, then we would be in with a good shout of a play-off. Performances more akin to the opening 45 minutes against Austria, rather than the second period where the defensive mentality was more evident, would make this more than a distinct possibility.
Over to you Trap.
