Ireland

Two years ago, the men in green were cruelly robbed in Paris when Thierry’s Henry handball was not spotted – and William Gallas was allowed to score the extra-time winner to send France to South Africa at the Republic’s expense.

The boot is on the other foot in this particular match-up with Ireland favourites to progress and the pressure, unlike against Les Bleus, will be on Giovanni Trapattoni’s men over the next few days.

Ireland did taste victory when they were involved in a play-off to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, beating Iran 2-1 on aggregate – although they lost the away leg, which came second, 1-0.

This time the Republic start on their travels with a trip to Tallinn on Friday night before the return leg in Dublin next Tuesday, and the Irish are 11/8 favourites to win tomorrow night’s encounter.

Estonia can be backed at 13/8 in the match betting to hold an advantage going into the second leg, while punters can get 11/5 about the draw.

Estonia surprised many to make it this far after being drawn in a group that contained Italy, Serbia and Slovenia – who all qualified for last year’s World Cup – but qualified as a runner-up when Slovenia beat Serbia in the last game.

The Blueshirts will be hoping that expectations have not got out of hand when they host the Irish on Friday night and that they can play with the freedom of a team which has nothing to lose.

If they can do that then they will cause problems, given the Republic’s struggle in their final Group B game, but both sides enjoyed better away performances to make the play-offs.

Estonia won 3-1 in Serbia and 1-0 in Slovenia, while Trapattoni’s side was unbeaten on the road, losing just one game in the entire group stage, 2-3 to group winners Russia at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

When the pressure was on, however, in the final group game against Armenia, Ireland struggled to cope with Armenia’s fluent passing game – and only made it through after a shocking decision by the referee to send off the visiting keeper Roman Berezovski and a comedy own goal to retain second spot – just winning 2-1.

Trapattoni has a number of injury worries to contend with as Shane Long and Leon Best have been ruled out, while Kevin Doyle is suspended after his red card against Armenia.

Good news for the men in green is the fact that talismanic skipper Robbie Keane is available again and warmed up for this clash with a goal in LA Galaxy’s 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake at the weekend.

The 31-year-old has been a fantastic servant for his country, leading their scoring charts with 51 goals in 112 appearances, and is the 5/1 favourite in the First/Last Goalscorer betting.

With so much at stake, it is difficult to see it being a free-flowing open game of football with plenty of goals, but the Republic’s experience may just tell in the end and Draw/Rep Ireland is on offer at 9/2 in the Half-time/Full-time market, while a 1-0 win for the away side is priced at 5/1.

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