World Cup play-offs:As the sense of anticipation ahead of Saturday's pivotal World Cup play-off continues to build, Liam Brady has expressed his belief that the Republic of Ireland have little to fear from their Croke Park date with the French.

Having gone through their entire qualifying campaign unbeaten, Ireland were a touch unfortunate not to claim all three points when they drew 2-2 with Italy at Croke Park.

And Brady believes that performance, when only an 89th minute Alberto Gilardino equaliser denied the home side a famous win, shows Giovanni Trapattoni’s side have the wherewithal to cause an upset over the two legs.

“You can't predict the way a game will go,” the Irish assistant manager said after training at a wet and windy Gannon Park this morning. “But we would like to go to Paris with a win under our belts.

“I know it has been a long time coming to defeat one of the top nations, but the Italian game gave us great confidence and taught us couple of lessons to take into this game.

“We conceded from set pieces and didn't hold on to our lead with a couple of minutes to go. We’ve learned from that. We so nearly beat a team like Italy, so we can beat France.”

Having worked alongside the likes of William Gallas and Bacary Sagna at Arsenal, not to mention Thierry Henry when he was at the Emirates, Brady is well aware of the threat the star-studded French line-up will pose.

Nevertheless, he remains confident that if Ireland stick to their game plan, a place in the World Cup finals is there for the taking.

”Their players are so well known from watching Arsenal,” he added. “We know Gallas and Sagna, what type of players they are . . . they are very very talented players I don't think anybody denies that.

“But it doesn't mean we fear them. There is confidence and spirit about the Irish team that we can qualify – there’s no doubt about that.”

With attention now turning to what side Trapattoni will select for the first leg, Brady expects the Italian to finalise his starting line-up later this evening. The spine of the side virtually picks itself at this stage but there are still some critical decisions to be made.

Damein Duff, Aiden McGeady, Stephen Hunt and Liam Lawrence are all vying for the wide positions in midfield and Brady admits the competition for places has provided the management team with something of a conundrum.

“I don't think the manager has made any decision on the team,” Brady explained, “he will probably have to do it tonight because of set pieces tomorrow. I don't think there will be any surprises.

“He has a difficult decision to make on flank players - we have four very strong players all playing well - so that is his selection headache. But I would rather have a headache and four to choose from than less.”