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The Republic of Ireland will move very close to securing second place in Group 8 if they can come away from Nicosia on Saturday night with three vital away points, writes RTÉ Sport’s Ed Leahy.
However, that is not as easy a task as it would have been ten years ago, as no one will forget the last time Ireland travelled to this Mediterranean island for a competitive fixture; they left with their tails between their legs on the wrong side of a 5-2 scoreline.
Of course, a new regime has been installed since that infamous night when the Irish were outclassed and deserved to lose, if not perhaps by a three-goal margin.
And Giovanni Trapattoni’s side remain unbeaten in the group, so a win in Cyprus would leave them on 16 points with two home games remaining.
An away win would also give Trap’s side a great confidence boost going into the vital home game against Italy at Croke Park.
The main injury concerns of Sean St Ledger and Caleb Folan look like they are not too serious and both players should be fit to play, which will give the Ireland supremo a full squad to choose from.
So what sort of line up will the old master go with for this vital encounter?
Trapattoni will definitely be playing for a victory so he is almost certainly going to start with Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane up front.
Shay Given will be in goal and the back four will probably consist of John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger and Kevin Kilbane.
Should St Ledger miss out, O’Shea could slot into the middle of defence and Stephen Kelly could start at right back.
That just leaves the midfield four to sort out and that is where the manager will earn his corn.
Will he go with his, now, old reliables of Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews or will Darron Gibson push Andrews onto the bench – or perhaps into the right back spot if O’Shea is playing in the centre?
And does Trap name the two tricky wingers, Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady, ahead of the workhorse that is Stephen Hunt?
I believe that Duff and McGeady will start as Trap will be looking to prise open the defence early on to set up Doyle and Keane.
And if Ireland do grab an early goal, it’s likely that a more defensive approach will be employed soon after, with Hunt liable to be sprung from the bench.
However, if Ireland don’t break the deadlock in the first half, or perish the thought, go behind in the game, expect Folan to be utilised and a more direct approach undertaken.
Personally, I would like to see only one of the wide men in the starting eleven – McGeady would get my vote – with Hunt sitting in, helping out the midfield pairing of Andrews and Whelan.
Cyprus play neat, quick football and that second wide man may leave a bit too much space in midfield for the home side to play through.
Ireland’s success in this campaign so far has been built on hard graft, which is another reason why I would go with Hunt.
The Hull City midfielder is also the type of player who opposing teams hate to play against, and he is brimming with confidence at club level at the moment, having moved back to the Premier League with a couple of goals under his belt already this season.
And while Doyle and Keane are deserving of their starting berths in the eleven, I must admit that I am a fan of Folan wreaking a bit of havoc in the opposing penalty box.
But if Ireland are still looking for a goal in the last fifteen minutes, expect Andy Keogh to get the nod, as he seems to be Trap’s lucky charm.
So maybe it will be the Wolves man who sneaks the points, to set up a battle royal with world champions Italy next month.
Verdict: A tough battle lies ahead for Trap’s men as Cyprus now believe that they are capable of beating Ireland and they play some nice football to boot. However, Ireland to win by a nose.
Cyprus v Republic of Ireland: A hometown view
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If Ireland come from behind to win, Paddy Power will refund all losing 1st /last goalscorer, correct score & scorecast singles on the match
Cyprus win: 3/1
Draw: 23/10
Ireland win: 10/11
First Scorers:
5 Keane; 6 Doyle; 7 Long; 15-2 Folan, Keogh, Best; 10 McGeady; 12 Duff, Lawrence, Hunt; 20 Whelan, Andrews, Gibson; 22 Miller; 28 Kilbane, O’Shea; 33 St Ledger, Dunne; 40 Nolan, Foley; 50 Kelly.
Some interesting statistics:
Head-to-Head
> Cyprus and Republic of Ireland have met nine times in international football. Cyprus have won one, Republic of Ireland seven and there has been one draw.
> Republic of Ireland are unbeaten in their last two matches against Cyprus. Ireland’s only ever defeat against them was 5-2 in Nicosia an ECQ match in Oct 2006.
> Ireland have won three of their four previous international visits to Cyprus – their last victory was 1-0 in a WCQ match in Oct 2005. Stephen Elliott scored the only goal of the match.
Republic of Ireland
> Currently 38th in the world rankings. They were 41st when Giovanni Trapattoni became manager in May 2008.
> Drawn their last three WCQ matches – their longest ever run of draws in WC qualifying matches.
> Unbeaten in their last nine WCQ matches since a 1-0 home defeat to France in Sep 2005 – their third longest run without a defeat in WCQ matches.
> In total, the defeat to France was their only in their last 27 WCQ matches stretching back to the start of 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign.
> Striker Robbie Keane is one short of 40 goals for his country. He has scored 13 goals in 29 World Cup matches for the Republic of Ireland, and has netted four in his last five WCQ matches.
> Keane is top scorer in WCQ Group 8 with four goals in seven qualification matches – one more than Cyprus’ Michalis Konstantinou, who has netted three goals in six WCQ matches.
> Richard Dunne and Glenn Whelan are the only two players to feature in all of Giovanni Trapattoni’s 13 matches in charge of the country. He has used 32 different players since he became manager.
Cyprus
> Currently 76th in the world rankings - their highest ever world ranking was 57th in October 2007.
> Their only win in six WCQ matches was 2-1 at home against Georgia on 28 March - Michalis Konstantinou and Demetris Christofi scored the goals.
> Scored five goals in their three WCQ home matches. The last team to stop them scoring in a WCQ home match was Ireland in their 1-0 victory in Nicosia in Oct 2005.
> In total, they have only ever won ten of 90 WCQ matches, losing 71 times. They have conceded 259 goals in these matches – an average of 2.87 per match.
> They have never qualified for the World Cup Finals in 11 previous attempts. Their previous best qualification performance was picking up ten points from eight matches in qualification for France 98 and eventually finishing fourth.
