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Nov 14, 2009

While several of Raymond Domenech's English-based players have publicly warned their team-mates they face a battle at Croke Park in Saturday night's .....

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While several of Raymond Domenech's English-based players have publicly warned their team-mates they face a battle at Croke Park in Saturday night's

World Cup play-off game, some of the noises coming outof the French camp have been less than complimentary.

However, that has simply served to increase the hunger among Giovanni Trapattoni's men to prove themselves when it matters most.

McGeady said: "You would never hear any of the boys in our camp having a go at the French team, even though if they were the same team they were a couple of years ago, they would ha

ve qualified in first place.
"But I am not going to get into a war of words with the F

rench team because they are filled with top, top players and they could go and destroy any team on their day - but hopefully not on Saturday or Wednesday."
The prize at stake is a trip to South Africa next summer, and McGeady is in little doubt as to where that would stand in his own personal list of achievements.
He said: "It would definitely be up there, maybe as number one, to be honest with you.
"As you are growing up, you dream of playing at a World Cup, and some of the boys have been lucky enough to play at one already.
"I just want to be part of that. I just want to do it on the world st

age, and everybody else in the squad is the same boat as me.
"They want to get there again if they have not already been there. That would be a massive achievement."
The two-legged tie has been billed, probably quite accurately, as a clash between French flair and pace and Irish passion and doggedness.
Ireland know all about the threat represented by Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema, and while Trapattoni insists he has world-class stars - Shay Given and Robbie Keane to name two - he freely acknowledges he does not have them in the kind of depth his opposite number enjoys.
But McGeady, one of the men who at his best has the ability to cause problems for the French, is relishing the challenge.
He said: "You can't compare the French team with us. We are a totally different outfit.
"They are filled with household names, world-class players from one to 11; we are a slightly different team.
"But as a creative player, the onus is on you to go and create and that's what I enjoy doing."
The game cannot come quickly enough for 23-year-old McGeady in particular as he attempts to bounce back from a difficult few weeks with his club, Celtic.
Derby defeat by Old Firm rivals Rangers, coupled with draws against Motherwell and at the weekend, Falkirk, have been greeted by a flurry of criticism, and a disappointing Europa League campaign has done little to ease the rumblings in Glasgow.
McGeady said: "It's really only since the last international break we have started to play poorly as a team at Celtic.
"Games against Motherwell, Hearts, losing there, European League games - it's been a poor month for us.
"But this is a good distraction. Hopefully, next Thursday, I will be going back to Glasgow delighted."
That said, the criticism from outside is not what gets to McGeady.
He said: "I just get down when I know we have not played well ourselves and I have not played well myself.
"I don't take too much notice of the stick we have been getting, the flak, it's more myself.
"I would get down personally, that's me as a player. I think about it all the time, and I am sure a lot of players are the same.
"But whatever goes on in the papers and people taking about your team doesn't affect me."
A play-off victory would provide the perfect tonic for McGeady, as would finally opening his international goal account after 29 appearances without finding the back of the net.
The midfielder said: "At Celtic, I have set myself a target of, say, 10, 12 goals this season.
"I have got four so far, but 10, 12 goals is what I am looking for, it is what any midfielder with aspirations to play in the top leagues has to set himself.
"But internationally, I need to improve on that front as well."

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