Giovanni Trapattoni names Irish squad to face Brazil

Irish soccer manager Giovanni Trapattoni has called up 23 players to his squad to face Brazil for the March 2 friendly at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London.

Wigan’s James McCarthy, Portsmouth’s Marc Wilson and Man City’s Greg Cunningham are the three new faces in the group for the glamour friendly against the Samba men.

After the hangover of the World Cup playoff defeat to France, Trapattoni is looking forward to getting back to work on the playing field

“I look forward to working with my squad again after the disappointment of Paris, said the 70-year-old.

“The priority now is to build on the progress made during the last campaign and prepare ourselves over the coming months mentally and tactically for an important Euro campaign.”

Shay Given (Manchester City), Keiren Westwood (Coventry), Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe); Richard Dunne (Aston Villa), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Kevin Kilbane (Hull), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Sean St Ledger (Preston), Paul McShane (Hull), Marc Wilson (Portsmouth), Greg Cunningham (Manchester City); Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Damien Duff (Fulham), Darron Gibson (Manchester United), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Keith Andrews (Blackburn), Stephen Hunt (Hull), Liam Lawrence (Stoke), James McCarthy (Wigan); Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Shane Long (Reading), Leon Best (Newcastle)