Ireland boss Trapattoni not tempted by second-leg changes

Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni will not make any changes for Wednesday's World Cup play-off second leg against France in Paris, believing his side have a 50-50 chance of overturning the 1-0 deficit.

Ireland lost the home leg to a deflected second half goal by Nicolas Anelka on Saturday, but the Italian said his usually conservative side can score the goal they need in Paris.

"All the players played well. I have to look at injuries and how the players feel but I don't have in my mind to change anything," Trapattoni told a news conference.

"I believe we can score on Wednesday. I think if we play offensively, we can score a goal."

The Ireland boss left it until the last minute to decide if Liam Lawrence or Aiden McGeady would start the first leg on the right side of midfield and was pleased with how Lawrence played.

"The performance of (Damien) Duff and Lawrence was super," he said, adding that two or three players had not performed as well as usual, perhaps due to tiredness.

The two sets of players clashed in the centre circle at the final whistle - a row that appeared to start between Ireland's Richard Dunne and France's Lassana Diarra - and Trapattoni said the flare-up was the result of an unrepeatable insult.

"One player said something to one of my players which I cannot repeat (it was so bad). A famous player insulted the player. I name the sin but not the player. You cannot insult the Irish people like this," he said.

"It is not in my culture (to complain). It is enough that they think about what they said and they realise they have done wrong," he added, when asked if he would encourage Ireland's governing football body to complain to FIFA about the incident.

Trapattoni said his players were disappointed but urged them to play with the same attitude and put more pressure on their more illustrious opponents on Wednesday.

"It is 50/50. It is only halfway. Anything can happen. I have seen in my time in Italy, in my time here with Ireland, many surprise results," he said. "Start with a little deflection, 1-0 to us. Why not?"