Bilic turns the knife

He's had better nights over the course of his long career with the Republic of Ireland, but then Tony Cascarino has had worse ones, too, so despite the bitter disappointment he was working hard at putting the game in a positive context.

We had, the general message was, come terribly close to pulling off something wonderful, but had to accept that it hadn't quite gone quite to plan. "Still," he said, more upbeat than anyone might have expected in the circumstances, "I'd rather be in our position now than theirs any day."

A couple of hundred metres away the Croatian defender, Slaven Bilic, saw it rather differently. Not only had Ireland's chance to finish top of Group Eight passed, argued the Everton defender who had just started his first international match since the third place play-off at France '98, but worse was to come.

Bilic reckons that, drained by their attempt to hold out for the draw in Zagreb, Cascarino and his team-mates will fail to beat Malta on Wednesday. He will, he insists, be "sad" to see it happen, but "after that Ireland will be only third in the group and Yugoslavia will go to the play-offs".

For Bilic it is Ireland's "lack of imagination" up front that will prove to be the team's undoing over the weeks ahead. "Don't get me wrong," says the 30-year-old from Split charmingly as he twists the knife, "you have great players, I know Robbie Keane and Niall Quinn from the premier league. But against 10 men in international football these days it is very difficult, you saw how difficult it was for us out there tonight.

"Against Malta is it harder still, because even if you score against them they don't come out, they are happy to lose 1-0, and the Irish players will be tired after their games in Dublin and here. "Mentally I think they are good enough to put what has happened tonight behind them, but physically it will be harder and I can't see any way they won't slip up."

Hardly surprisingly, Cascarino sees the run-in differently. He does agree with his rival that he and his team-mates can bounce back from the psychological blow of Suker's late strike, but he is confident, too, the Republic can go win their remaining two games.

"I mean, yeah, we were gutted with tonight, but the fact is that we didn't come here expecting any favours and we didn't get any. I think whenever you come to a team that's rated third in the world then you know it's going to be hard. But if the ball had dropped nicely for us even once during the game then maybe it would have been a better night.

"When you look at what's to come in the group, though, you've got to say that we're still in a pretty good position. I don't see Yugoslavia coming here and winning, it's just not going to happen, and so if we can go on now and win in Malta then it sets us up nicely."