Proud Trap praises players belief

Giovanni Trapattoni believes Ireland can repeat the success Greece had seven years ago, when they won the competition, in next summer’s European Championships.  Greece were rank outsiders going into the Euro 2004 competition but managed to pull off a huge shock when they beat Portugal in the final to lift European football’s biggest trophy.
 

Now, seven years on, the Ireland coach thinks there is no reason why the Irish team shouldn’t be full of confidence ahead of next summer.

“Why not?” he answered when asked if he thought Ireland could achieve what Greece did when they hosted the tournament.  “Now we have also discovered Walters and Cox. We have these options and Robbie (Keane). And Shane Long also has to come back.”

“Why not we have good options in attack and also good wingers. It’s not a dream.  But we need 100 per cent commitment.”

Speaking after his side's 5-1 aggregate victory over Estonia, the Irish boss revealed how happy he was to be heading to another final after a long and trying campaign.

“I am very, very proud for many reasons. We have come here with an important objective.  We proved our quality. We lost against Russia but after we started again with a new mentality, with a new attitude. The players believed in our system.”

Reflecting on the campaign, he signalled out the recent 2-1 victory over Armenia as the key game from the group phases.

Trapattoni went on to say how happy he was for the players and the Irish public alike and said he understood fully how important qualifying for a major tournament is for the Irish people. 

“I am proud. I understand what Irish people wish for and for this reason I’m happy for the players and the fans.”

And despite only just insuring qualification, the “Lucky General”, as he has been nicknamed, was already focusing on the coming months, and developing a strong squad to compete in Poland and Ukraine.

“I would like to play James McCarthy for example but I also wanted to achieve a good result and didn’t want to put him in too difficult a situation. But we will have more opportunities with friendly games in February and we will try different situations with Coleman and James (McCarthy).  Now we have 25, 26 players in this squad.”

He concluded on a light note by saying he would keep his promise and climb Croagh Patrick after stating he would do so if Ireland qualified for the finals.

He added he would not be celebrating with the players but said they fully deserved to enjoy themselves.  “It’s probably better I don’t see this”, he quipped.