No winner as managers play favourites

France v Republic of Ireland: Like a reluctant participant in a pre-fight weigh-in with a slightly bizarre twist, Brian Kerr became embroiled yesterday in a tussle with Raymond Domenech over which of their two sides has the right to be considered underdog ahead of Saturday's crucial World Cup encounter at the Stade de France.

Domenech had already gone to great lengths to praise the Irish as Group Four's best team of last month's opening two rounds of games. He has also made much of his own problems with rampant absenteeism even before yesterday's news that his most creative attacking force in midfield, Barcelona's Ludovic Giuly, had become the latest player to be ruled out by injury.

As if that weren't enough to contend with there were suggestions from the visiting French press corps in north Dublin that the number of Irish supporters expected in Paris had left the host nation's players feeling as though they will be "away from home this time".

Kerr greeted this latest attempt to surrender pre-match favourite status with some degree of scepticism and was quickly on the counter-defensive.

"I think we have to remember here that the French will probably still be in a position to field seven of the players that played against Croatia in the European Championships while they have the likes of Sebastien (Squillaci), (Gael) Givet and (Patrice) Evra, all of whom have been playing in the Champions League with Monaco, to add to their squad. That's not bad, is it?

"They have huge depth," he added. "Okay, there are advantages for us in the likes of Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira not being available but then the lads who are coming in have been waiting for their chance. They're not young lads. They've been waiting a long time and they're good players. The reality is that they have plenty of good players to call on."

Still, it was suggested, he must be relieved that Vieira will not be around to marshal a midfield that, good or bad, is effectively second-string by French standards.

"Well, all right," he grinned, "I'm not exactly disappointed, we won't be submitting a written appeal to UEFA or anything like that, but the players he's recalled are all experienced. (Sylvain) Wiltord, (Olivier) Dacourt and (Mikael) Silvestre all have a lot of experience and it says a lot about the position they're in that they have that calibre of player to call back in."

Kerr admitted to having been caught out slightly by his own position. The manager has been on the receiving end of a healthy turn-out, with 23 of the 24 players he called up last week available for the game following Richard Dunne's return to Manchester yesterday for treatment on a calf muscle injury. If fit, Dunne will rejoin the Irish squad on Sunday.

The only absentee yesterday was Shay Given, who has stayed on at home for an extra couple of days to be with his pregnant wife before travelling directly to Paris.

"I've still one or two decisions to make," said the Ireland manager. "In the build-up to games like this you're always hoping that everybody's going to be fit and available but you never really expect them all to be there. What I want to do now is take as much time as I can to assess how sharp everybody is in training but they're all here and dying to play, which is certainly a good start."

The shape of the team, he says, he has settled upon, but there are clearly one or two questions yet to be answered when it comes to the personnel. Still a considerable doubt in the manager's mind is Matt Holland, who had done much to prove his fitness over the past couple of weeks but not, perhaps, quite enough.

"I don't know about him, to be honest," he said. "He feels he's fit and that he's in a strong physical condition but whether he'd last 90 minutes I'm really not sure."

The Charlton midfielder's experience could become particularly important if the Irish have to adapt their line-up to counter the French tactical formation or if there is something to defend through the second half, but a final decision on whether he is ready to start such a crucial game may not actually end up being taken until Saturday afternoon.

"We'll have to wait and see what they do tactically," said Kerr. "I have no idea what to expect really. Since the new manager came in they've played a match-and-a-half each of 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 and all I can say is that we expect them to play one of those two again and that we'll be ready for whichever one of them it is.

"To be fair to our lads, they have a fair bit of experience at this stage of playing against different formations and I don't think they should have too many problems coping with whatever is thrown at them on Saturday."

Though stopping some way short of accepting a concession of home advantage by the French, Kerr acknowledged the size of the Irish support in St Denis would be a major boost.

The FAI has already distributed just over 19,000 match tickets while many more supporters from home and abroad are believed to have purchased tickets from the French federation's website or other retail outlets in the host country. In all, around 25,000 visiting supporters (some estimates put the figure as high as 30,000) are expected to be in the Stade de France at kick-off time.

French interest in their team has waned in the wake of some disappointing performances, though two days ago all but 2,000 of the tickets for the game had been sold.

"I think that some of the results we've had in the last year against the likes of Brazil, the Czech Republic and Holland have contributed to a sense of optimism amongst the supporters," Kerr said. "But then there's always been a great tradition here of travelling to the away games."

Kerr himself will be returning to the Stade de France for the first time since seeing the game between Brazil and France to celebrate FIFA's centenary at the end of last season. "It's a great stadium and I was telling the lads," he said with a sigh, "I became a bit emotional sitting there and thinking that the next time it would be us out there."

It's nothing, one suspects, to the emotion he will be feel if his side can become the latest side to dent the French team's fearsome reputation on their home turf.