ONLY 180 minutes stand between Hibs stars Liam Miller and Anthony Stokes joining Easter Road team-mate Sol Bamba in South Africa for next summer's World Cup finals.
Oh, and of course, the small matter of France, the Republic of Ireland's opponents in a play-off to determine which one of them will be taking part in football's greatest extravaganza. Miller and Stokes will team up with the squad of Irish boss G
iovanni Trapattoni, pictured, on Monday to prepare for the first leg of that double-header at Dublin's Croke Park next Saturday, with the second taking place four days later in Paris.
As Miller admitted today, it is a tough proposition but he insisted Trapattoni's players can take inspiration from Scotland's back-to-back victories over the French in the last European Championship qualifying campaign even if those goals by Gary Caldwell at Hampden and James McFadden's wonder strike in the Parc des Princes weren't enough to take the nation to the finals themselves. The 28-year-old midfield ace said: "We've got two massive matches in the space of four days. It's going to be really tough as France have so many world-class players but we'll be giving it a go.
"However, I think all the pressure is on France, we'll be going into the games as underdogs.
"Of course, we can take inspiration from those Scotland wins. No-one expected the Scots to do it once far less twice so it just goes to show what can happen in the course of a football match.
"With the first match at home I think we have to be looking to get some sort of advantage to take over there. It would be nice to have a win behind us, something to defend but I don't believe a draw would be the worst result."
Although former Celtic, Manchester United, Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers ace Miller believes France will be firm favourites, the French will be well aware that the Irish came close to topping qualifying section which was eventually headed by Italy.
The Italians finally did so six points ahead of Ireland having remained unbeaten in their ten matches but the bald statistics don't tell the complete story.
Ireland, too, negotiated their way through a group which also included Bulgaria, Montenegro, Georgia and Cyprus without losing although their downfall proved to be the fact they drew six of their games.
Having seen a late Robbie Keane strike earn them a draw against the Italians in Bari early in the campaign, the Irish looked set to go one better in Dublin last month when Sean St Ledger struck with just three minutes of the match remaining, giving Trapattoni's side a 2-1 lead which would have closed the gap between the top two sides to a single point going into the last round of games.
Cruelly, however, Italian substitute Alberto Gilardino claimed a last-minute equaliser, clinching the automatic qualifying place and leaving Ireland, who drew their final game with Montenegro 0-0, to face the play-offs.
Miller admitted he and his Irish team-mates were taken aback to find the draw for the play-offs seeded, a decision which seemed to be taken late in the day but, he revealed, finishing second in qualifying Group B was an achievement in itself.
He said: "It was a bit disappointing the draw was seeded rather than open and that the decision seems to have been taken so late on.
"We did have a half-chance at one point of topping our group and taking that automatic place but finishing second when you look at the likes of Bulgaria and the players they have was pretty good. Now, of course, we want to take that one step further and qualify for South Africa.
"Big Sol is lucky in that he's already there with the Ivory Coast but it would be great if a couple more of us from Easter Road could be joining him next summer."
While Miller has been a regular member of Trapattoni's squads, the play-offs have resulted in Hibs striker Stokes earning a recall for his country
The last of his previous three caps had come in a friendly against Bolivia in 2007.
And, according to Miller, it is a well-merited recall for the former Arsenal youngster.
He said: "I'm not aware of Mr Trapattoni having sent anyone to watch any Hibs matches but it's obvious he must have had someone keeping him informed of what is going on here.
"Anthony has been banging in the goals for us and you have to say that being named for the French games is reward for what he has done at Easter Road."
