'The players are psychologically ready' - Marco Tardelli

'The players are psychologically ready' - Ireland assistant manager Marco Tardelli

13 Jun 2012 08:16:00

Ireland assistant manager insists that his players are mentally ready for the crucial game against Spain in Group C

Marco Tardelli says Ireland have several options to counter the threat posed by Spain in their crunch Euro 2012 Group C match on Thursday. It had been suggested earlier in the week by Giovanni Trapattoni that Stoke City striker Jonathan Walters would replace Kevin Doyle in the starting line up and Tardelli refused to rule such a possibility out.

“Maybe, but we have other solutions,” the 57-year-old told the Irish Examiner. “Or maybe we can play the same team. We still have time to decide. During training we see if the players are good or not because we need them psychologically ready.

“We hope for a win but we just need to play and then see what happens,” said Tardelli.

The Italian expressed his satisfaction that the Irish players were mentally equipped to retrieve something from the fixture against Spain.

He said: "The players want to turn this situation around. They are fit. They are professional players and I think now, psychologically, they are ready to face Spain.

"And they want to show the country that they are good,” added the 1982 World Cup winner.

Tardelli also remarked that the team was ready for the game against Croatia but that the lucky breaks went against them in the opening 3-1 defeat.

He said: "They were fit and sharp in training before Croatia too but in that game we were very unlucky because maybe we could have avoided the first goal.

"But we recovered the goal and I think we played a good match because we saw in the second half we had a good chance and the penalty that the referee forgot.

"I think the little situations (decided the match),” concluded Tardelli.

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