2014 WORLD CUP DRAW:AFTER SATURDAY'S draw in Rio de Janeiro Germany's general manager Oliver Bierhoff said he was "satisfied with the group", describing Sweden and the Republic of Ireland as difficult games though he considered both sides "beatable".

He said Ireland were now a team in “good shape”, with players capable of causing Germany problems in the qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup finals.

“On paper Ireland are behind Sweden but we see them as being as strong as Sweden and with Trapattoni it will not be easy,” he said.

“It will be a big atmosphere but we can do it. All the players will be motivated.”

Swedish coach Erik Hamrén also said he was expecting “tough games” between his young side and Ireland, recalling that the last time the two sides met Ireland were easy 3-0 winners (in March, 2006 at Lansdowne Road) before quickly adding “it was before I took over as coach”.

Hamrén admitted Germany were the group’s clear favourites:

“They have been really good since the last World Cup. We and Ireland and Austria will fight with them but they are the big favourites.”

Eight of the nine second-placed teams in Europe’s groups qualify for a play-off round.

The manager of group fourth seed Austria said playing their great next-door rivals would motivate his players more than usual.

“Every Austrian wants to win against Germany. Everyone has the dream to beat Germany,” said Dietmar Constantini.

Germany, Austria and Kazakhstan were drawn in the same qualifying group for the European Championship next year. The Irish management will be able to have an early look at their group opponents in action against each other when Germany host Austria next month, while the Austrians travel to Kazakhstan in October.

Asked about Ireland, Constantini was quick to praise the manager: “I love Trapattoni, really. He is a very good coach, world class. With him Ireland is a tough number three seed and would have been a tough number two.

“So I think the fight to be second in the group will be between Sweden, Ireland and us.”

Having won domestic titles in both Germany and Austria as a manager, Trapattoni will be familiar with both German-speaking opponents.

Saturday’s draw will see the Austrians revisit one of the lowest points in the history of their national team when they lost to the Faroe Islands in 1990 in a European Championship qualifier in what was the Islanders’ first ever competitive fixture.

Kazakhstan’s Czech coach Miroslav Beránek said Ireland were a “very skilled team with a charismatic goalkeeper, John O’Shea in defence and a great striker in Robbie Keane,” with the side’s European Championship campaign a testament to how difficult an opponent they would be.

“In my opinion they are the strongest of the third seeds,” he said in a statement after the draw.

Regarding arranging fixtures, Bierhoff said the DFB would be inviting their opponents to Germany next month to sort out the schedule, though with qualifying not even concluded for the European Championship, games won’t begin until September next year.

There was a time when a Fifa draw just required a few blazers in a room with a small sack filled with numbered balls. Such is the scale of things now, There was a three-day official build-up to a show that feels like a very boring version of the Eurovision Song Contest, with the kind of scripted dialogue that is squeezing the life out of the Oscars.

(Sample: ‘Cafu, you’ve played in three World Cup finals. Which makes you more nervous – playing in a World Cup final or participating in this draw?’ ‘Ah, this draw for sure.’)

The whole thing cost over €13 million and even then high winds threatened to rip the roof off the cavernous tent erected at a luxury marina in Rio de Janeiro for the occasion.

Of course the reason Fifa spends lavishly on such gatherings is because it is not its own money.

The World Cup in 2014 will be largely paid for by the Brazilian taxpayer and Rio’s authorities bankrolled last week’s event because it says the publicity it will receive as a result is cheap at the price. Studies “proving” this sort of economics are all the rage in Brazil right now.

To keep Fifa happy, Rio even shut down the city’s busiest airport for four hours to make sure the noise of planes taking off and landing wouldn’t interfere with the broadcast, though the winds sought to pick up the slack.