Kilbane has nothing to fear from draw

Kevin Kilbane insists the Republic of Ireland await tomorrow’s draw for the World Cup play-offs afraid of no-one. Giovanni Trapattoni’s side will meet either France, Portugal, Russia or Greece over two legs on November 14 and 18 with a place at next summer’s finals at stake.

The draw, to be made at Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich at lunchtime (1pm Irish time), has been controversial following the decision to introduce seedings.

Ireland coach Trapattoni has led the criticism of a system that was announced only last month, but international centurion Kilbane is confident his side will prevail whoever they draw.

“We knew from the results last weekend who the top four sides were probably going to be,” said the Hull midfielder. “We are not happy about the way the seeding has gone but you have to move on from that.

“We have got a big draw to come tomorrow and we will look at that and see who we get. You can’t really look at any side in terms of preference. They have all got dangerous players and qualities.

“Whoever we get, we get, and I think we are confident of beating anyone over two legs. You focus on yourselves and be the team you have been throughout the campaign. Hopefully that will be enough.

“We’ve got a lot of players in the squad who are hungry and ready for a big tournament.”

Trapattoni described the seeding system as the “death of football”, while Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given branded them “disgusting” and “totally unfair on the smaller nations”.

Given, another 100-cap veteran, even spoke of a Fifa conspiracy to help the bigger teams qualify.

But allowing for the fact seedings were in place at the same stage in 2006 and are also used for the qualifying groups and finals, Fifa’s error appears to be leaving it so late before confirming they would be used tomorrow.

Trapattoni and his players have been careful not to express any preference on who they might face, though Greece would be the obvious choice.

They are not the force that won the 2004 European Championships, are an ageing side still reliant on set-pieces and in 16th place are the lowest ranked of the seeded teams.

France and Portugal have proved vulnerable during qualifying, the former undermined by internal disputes and the latter struggling to score, so Ireland should not be intimidated.

Russia were the only side picked out for special attention by Trapattoni because of their artificial pitch, though with Guus Hiddink at the helm the Italian knows he will also faced a brilliant operator.

Alongside Ireland in pot two of tomorrow’s draw are the Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.

Whoever Ireland meet, midfielder Stephen Hunt believes there will be no margin for error.

“We can’t afford to make mistakes in the play-offs because you are out, it’s as simple as that,” said Hunt “We have to be ruthless and mentally strong coming down the final stretch.”