Do Ireland need a miracle?

In a word, yes. Last Saturday's result was a sickening one for Ireland to swallow but, was always likely to happen with the way the side was set up. With Lawrence and Duff both in wide positions, the impetus was handed to the French full-backs to get up and support Henry and Anelka at every available opportunity. Sagna did most of the counter-attacking throughout the opening half before Evra realised that Lawrence's sole purpose on the pitch was to prevent the United full-back from getting forward - Lawrence never even attempted to take on Evra and was happy to stay on the half-way line for the majority of the game. Clearly he was under strict instructions but I don't think it would've been too much to ask for McGeady to have been handed a start in the home fixture. Granted, the Celtic wide-man has been patchy for his international side but, he has the ability to get past his man and deliver a decent ball into the box. He also has the ace up his sleeve of being able to play on both sides. Lawrence and Duff played to a certain standard we've grown accustomed to throughout Trapattoni's tenure with Ireland - passionate, hard-working and distinctly average. Sure, they probably quelled a decent amount of potential raids by France down each flank but it was to the detriment of Ireland's chances of scoring goals from open play. This is knock-out and Ireland needed to score at least once at Croke Park

In Ireland's five away games during the group-stages of qualification, they amassed a total of six goals, scoring twice against Georgia in Mainz and Cyprus in Nicosia. In Ireland's four play-off ties of the modern era, they've scored a total of one goal away from home - Ray Houghton's header against Belgium in 1997. They've never won a game away from home in a play-off situation, going down 2-1 against Belgium that night, losing 2-0 to Holland at Anfield in 1995, defeated 1-0 by Iran in Tehran back in 2001 and drawing 0-0 with Turkey back in 1999. What are the chances of heading to St. Denis on Wednesday and scoring even once? You can do the math...

So, how do Ireland need to approach the second leg if, like Trapattoni has said, there'll be no change in personnel? The first thing is decide what role Robbie Keane is going to have. Last Saturday, he was anonymous (yet again) and didn't seem to understand where he was playing or what role he was fulfilling. Doyle occupies the hard-running target man position while Keane just seems to play a little behind him in the hope of winning the occasional flick-on or knock-down. His role is so central, the actual tactics back-fire on the Irish because he's so far up the pitch leading to frantic running back when defending. Keane is the talisman within this side and needs to firstly, find out what his role is and secondly, deliver a calibre of performance on Wednesday that he's been unable to deliver for his country for the vast majority of his career. If Keane believes he's a good enough footballer to play in a deep-lying '10' position, dictating the offense, then let's get him in that position. On Wednesday, Duff and Lawrence will be given instructions to push further forward so Keane will have more of an outlet to link up with the wide-men than he's had all through Trap's time in charge. We need goals on Wednesday and cannot simply rely on set-pieces to get them. Let's take on the French and create chances.

That is the second thing Ireland need to do - try everything they can to test Hugo Lloris, a terrific goalkeeper but, as his side's recent 5-5 draw with Marseille in Ligue 1 proved, not unaccustomed to errors. Andrews and Whelan both had efforts from distance get Lloris busy last Saturday - Ireland need to pepper his goal on Wednesday night and who knows? Maybe, just maybe, an early goal could come Ireland's way. However, if the French take an early lead, game over.

Finally, Trapattoni needs to get the key decisions right. Last Saturday, selection was an issue - perhaps he was right to start both Lawrence and Duff but, one thing's for sure, when Ireland needed a goal, it was McGeady who came on. Irregardless, on Wednesday, Leon Best cannot be brought into the game with the majority of the second half still to be played - this is knock-out and Kevin Doyle needs to play the full 90 minutes of every international. The gulf in class between the starting eleven and the bench became horribly evident when both Best and Stephen Hunt entered the fray - neither finding the rhythm or pattern, Hunt finding it difficult to keep control of the ball and find a team-mate with a pass. These mistakes can't be repeated on Wednesday. If they are, it's not going to end well.