NOTHING MUCH TO FEAR

Seeded teams all have flaws

SEEDED teams in today’s World Cup play-off draw don’t fear the Republic of Ireland - but would happily sidestep Martin O’neill’s men all the same. Italy, Croatia , Denmark and Switzerland are, naturally, the bookmakers favourites to progress to the finals at the expense of the Irish, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Greece. But while it isn’t easy-on-the-eye football, Ireland’s brutal knack of delivering against top teams when the chips are down has those four sides marking them as one to avoid. Assessing various media outlets from the seeded countries yesterday, there is a collective hope of avoiding Sweden and then take your chances after that. A Danish newspaper, for instance, certainly appeared to suggest that Northern Ireland was their preferred draw. But while the Republic have it all to do to reach Russia, should they be quaking in their boots at the prospect of facing any of those seeded teams? By no means is this a golden era for the Italian team and their reputation strikes fear more so than their current squad. They were paired in the same qualifying group as Spain but lacked conviction throughout the qualifying campaign and manager Gian Piero Ventura is under fire. “It would be a tragedy and a catastrophe if Italy are not at the World Cup but it’s our job to ensure this does not happen,” he said after the 1-1 home draw with Macedonia 10 days ago. Croatia are arguably a more imposing outfit – not least with a midfield that boasts Real Madrid star Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic of Barcelona and Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic. They had Ireland’s measure back at Euro 2012 when Mario Mandzukic ran riot from an early stage and the Juventus ace finished this campaign as top scorer in the group. What is promising is they have been in meltdown behind the scenes after sacking manager Ante Cacic just over a week ago for blowing the chance of automatic qualification. Croatia, who finished behind Iceland in their qualifying group, drew at home to Finland and Cacic was shown the door with one qualifier to go. Zlatko Dalic has got the leg up since and his players responded by beating Ukraine 2-0 in Kiev in that final game, with H offen heim’ s Andre j Kramaric bagging both goals. Of course, Ireland fans will be hoping to land either Denmark or Switzerland in today ’s draw . Denmark and Ireland have not met in 10 years, not since Robbie Keane and Shane Long bagged a brace apiece in a 4-0 friendly win in Aarhus. But they are a team on the rise, spearheaded by Tottenham star Christian Eriksen who scored eight in qualifying – fourth highest in Europe – and six in his last six games. They finished five points behind group winners Poland but count a fine 4-0 home win in over the Poles among their more impressive results. Danish boss Age Hareide said: “Northern Ireland and Ireland play slightly the same way but Sweden and Greece have their own style. Whoever we get we have to adapt.” Switzerland – at seventh – are actually the highest ranked of the four seeded options today but could be the dream draw. They looked no great shakes in their 2-0 defeat to Portugal a week ago but had been top of their group until that game. They won nine out of nine up to then but that is clouded somewhat by having whipping boys Latvia, Faroes Islands and Andorra in the group. Their 2-0 win over Portugal in the opening qualifier last year should not to be sniffed at but there was an element of catching the Euro 2016 champions when suffering a hangover.