REPUBLIC of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni will prepare his players for two "cup finals" as they attempt to dump France out of the World Cup.
Ireland were handed arguably the toughest possible draw in next month's play-offs when they were paired with the 1998 winners and 2006 runners-up yesterday.
Trapattoni's men will host the French at Croke Park on Saturday, 14 November before tryi
ng to complete the job at the Stade de France in Paris four days later. The Italian said: "These games are like cup finals.
"We have come through the qualification group and are one of only five teams in Europe with an unbeaten record. That will give us self-belief going into these games.
"We have done well so far, but over the 180 minutes, we must give something additional, and we will have to be even more concentrated and focused than we have been until now.
"We have come out of a group containing the current world champions, Italy, and have got positive results against them in both games.
"Now we face the 2006 World Cup finalists and our results to date will give us the conviction and the belief that we can get a result."
Ireland finished second in Group 8 behind Italy having drawn with the reigning champions in Bari and in Dublin, when only substitute Alberto Gilardino's late equaliser denied them a famous victory. But they emerged from the group unbeaten with four victories and six draws.
France were denied automatic qualification from Group Seven by Serbia, who amassed 22 points to their 21. They lost only once – 3-1 in Austria in their opening qualifier in September last year, a result for which they gained revenge, winning by the same score in their final game in Paris last Wednesday evening.
Raymond Domenech's side was one of four seeded teams Ireland could have drawn with Portugal, Greece and Russia landing Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Slovenia respectively.
Former manager Gerard Houllier believes France have a "50-50 chance" of qualifying for South Africa following the draw. France are ninth on FIFA's world rankings but could only finish second behind Serbia in their qualifying group.
"Ireland are one of the toughest opponents for Les Bleus," said Houllier, who was in Zurich for the draw as a representative of France Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes.
"Beforehand I had a hunch that France would draw Ireland and I was right. They will be difficult. Nobody wanted to draw Ireland because they know they've finished their qualification group unbeaten. With Trapattoni (at the helm) we won't win by scoring lots of goals but we also don't lose a lot. It will be a great battle over 180 minutes."
Asked if he thought France were favourites, Houllier added in L'Equipe: "I want to say yes but over two legs everything is possible. For me it will be a 50-50 chance. It is a good thing though that the second match is at home. I am sure the atmosphere at the second leg will be special."
Former Republic defender David O'Leary agreed with Houllier that the Irish who have not beaten France since 1981, could upset their more fancied rivals.
"They've all seen the Italian match. I think the way Trapattoni has got this team and the players in it thinking, they won't fear anybody," O'Leary said.
"They respected Italy, they knew they were going to go out and play against wonderful players, but they weren't in awe of them. They knew if they were all organised, stayed together and did their jobs, they could be very difficult to beat, and they proved that."
The teams last met in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup when they played out a goalless draw in Paris before a Thierry Henry goal separated the teams at Lansdowne Road.
O'Leary does not believe the current France line-up are as strong as that team but concedes Les Bleus will still be favourites.
"I think there's always mumblings of everything in the French squad, because they've got so many star players and individuals," he added.
"They always seem to get the job done but they should've got out of the group they were in with the talent they've got. But now they've come through and salvaged second place and have got the chance to go to the World Cup. Fifa want them there because of those star players, but I hope Ireland can produce a shock and they'll be there instead."
