Trapattoni weighing up his options for Austria clash

The Irish squad were back training this afternoon in Malahide where Giovanni Trapattoni started the process of weighing up his options for Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Austria in the wake of Friday's fine performance in Stockholm.

Glenn Whelan is receiving treatment for the ankle injury that kept him out of the scoreless draw and the Stoke City midfielder is still in contention to come back into the side.

Whether the manager will want to make any changes to his starting line-up after what was one of the best Irish performances in recent years, remains to be seen however and there is bound to be a temptation for Trapattoni to stick with the same side, even if elements of its selection, including the decision to play Jon Walters instead of Robbie Brady, were originally dictated by Whelan's withdrawal.

Brady could still feature next time, however, as Ireland need to find ways to pose far more of an attacking threat in a home game against a team that they will be expected to beat.

Robbie Keane, though, feels that the players have already made a point with the way that they subdued a decent Swedish side on their home turf.

"I wouldn't say Sweden weren't great," said the Irish skipper, "I'd say we were great in what we did. If Sweden weren't great it is because we stopped them from playing. It is as simple as that.

"We were hunting in packs and stopping them from playing. Of course we would have wanted three points but with the way we stopped them, nobody really had too many chances to score. I think, overall," he concluded, "we were the better team."

The FAI, meanwhile, will be hoping that the away draw and the quality of the performance that earned it will provide a substantial boost to the attendance for Tuesday's game at the Aviva stadium. Tickets for it are available through the association's website, fai.ie, starting at €35 for adults, €10 for kids and €80 for families.