Despite the fact that Ireland have nothing to play for aside from pride tomorrow night, Giovanni Trapattoni has picked the same starting XI that was defeated 3-1 by Croatia.
Ignoring the clamour for a youthful overhaul of the starting line-up – with former captain Roy Keane today stating that he would have named an entirely new 11 players for Monday night’s game – Trap has instead made just one change from the side that was defeated 4-0 by Spain on Thursday.
Don’t get too excited by the change, however, as the Italian has simply replaced Simon Cox with a returning Kevin Doyle, thus picking an identical side to the team that fell to Croatia last Sunday.
Evidently Trap was not too impressed by the substitution appearances of James McClean and Jonathan Walters during the Spain game, even though sections of the Irish fanbase had hoped that either would start against Cesere Prandelli’s team.
Here’s the team for tomorrow night:
Given, Ward, Dunne, St Ledger, O’Shea, McGeady, Whelan, Andrews, Duff, Cox, Keane.
As announced earlier this morning, Damien Duff will captain the side and win his 100th cap in the process. The Italian side has not yet been named but an injured Mario Balotelli is expected to make way for Antonio Di Natale.
