New Italy coach Marcello Lippi is wary of the threat that Italian counterpart Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic of Ireland offer to his side, but is confident they can over come the team in the World Cup qualification programme.

He told the Irish Times: “I remember Ireland well from my last time in charge, because we played a friendly against them in August 2005. That was a tough game and it was an important game for us because it came at the end of a year of World Cup preparations and experiments.

”My impression was that the Irish team was a good one, and with Trapattoni in charge, they’re going to be all that more convinced and assured of themselves and for that reason they’re going to be a very difficult team to play.”