Defeat tonight unthinkable for Advocaat

SOCCER:WITH JUST the press and a smattering of onlookers at the Russian squad's training session in the Aviva Stadium last evening the atmosphere was sedate enough, but manager Dick Advocaat anticipates the place being "Anfield, Old Trafford and Ibrox all rolled into one" come tonight.

However intimidating the home support, though, his players will have to rise to the occasion, the 63-year-old, who succeeded fellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink in the Russian job during the summer, admitting that after last month’s loss to Slovakia in Moscow defeat tonight was unthinkable.

Advocaat was less insistent, however, on victory being essential if the group favourites are to revive their hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2012, as he had suggested earlier in the week.

“We must win or draw, we cannot lose,” he said.

“Our intention always is to win a game, but if you feel that is not possible, if the other team is better, then you have to change tactics a little bit during the game. You have to draw back, that’s the way it goes. We will go out for a victory, but if we get a draw, then okay. Remember, four of our last five games are at home.”

While waxing lyrical in the build-up the game about Giovanni Trapattoni’s record as a coach, Advocaat, whose own CV includes international stints with the Netherlands (twice), the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Belgium, credited him with giving Ireland a “tactical culture they needed”. He was, though, reluctant to view tonight as a “chess game” between himself and the Italian. “I don’t think Ireland is a team that likes to play chess, I think they like to play football,” he smiled.

He was smiling again when a reporter from Moscow asked him if he agreed with the notion that “Russian players normally show their best form for their clubs, while Irish players show their best form playing for the national team”, criticism after the Slovakia game of Yuri Zhirkov and Andrey Arshavin, in particular, evidently on his mind.

“That’s a quality of Ireland,” Advocaat replied, “but while I was really disappointed with the result against Slovakia I was not disappointed with the commitment. Some players are in better shape than they were against Slovakia, they are playing more regularly for their clubs, and one of them is Zhirkov. So I have a much better feeling for this game.

“It is always difficult when you are not playing regularly, but the good thing is that in the last couple of weeks Zhirkov played two or three games for Chelsea. It was not his best performance against Slovakia, but you could see the last few days in training he looked much more sharp and fitter than he was before. You have to play. It is always a problem, the same with (Robbie) Keane. But if you go to a club like that (Chelsea or Tottenham) you can expect that.

“I’m a great admirer of Keane,” he said of the player who scored the winner against Advocaat’s Dutch team in Amsterdam six years ago, just before they departed for the World Cup finals. “He’s always there, he always likes to play for his country. But I can understand that if you play for a team like Spurs then you know when they have so many talented players you won’t always be a regular. But I don’t think that’s a big problem for him because his heart is in the right place.”

One player who has been featuring regularly for his club is Aiden McGeady, a player with whom Advocaat, former manager of Glasgow Rangers, was already familiar before his move to Spartak Moscow.

“I knew him from Celtic, he was a great talent there. He is a dangerous player, if we give him the space to play he can damage our defence, but we do not intend to do that.

“All I know is that they are very happy with him at Spartak. There aren’t many players of that calibre, the kind of player who can cross, pass, score a goal. I am quite surprised that he has done so well.”

Surprised? “Surprised because it’s been so quick, he’s only been in Russia for two or three months. You know if you go abroad the majority of players need time to feel comfortable, but straight from the beginning he was a key player in their team. I was surprised, too, that he went to Russia and not England. He is the kind of player I like to have in my team.”

So, what do you expect from Ireland? “I think Ireland has no secrets, if they can attack they will attack, and if they have to defend they will defend as a team. So, no secrets. But if they give us the space we can damage them.”