Irish manager Giovanni Trapattoni looks forward to 'cup final' against France

Trap asks for ‘a little extra' from his men to prevail against the mighty French

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Giovanni Trapattoni has pointed to his team's resilience against Italy as a benchmark of their strength and determination as they now face France, arguably the toughest opponent possible in the European section of World Cup playoffs.

"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," said the Italian after the draw was made in Zurich on Monday.

"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," possibly alluding to his team's worrying tendency to concede goals just after scoring or in the dying moments of games.

However, the Irish manager is by no means fazed ahead of next month's challenge.

"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," he said.