Trapattoni hopes to stay with Ireland

Giovanni Trapattoni wants to stay on as Republic of Ireland coach despite his team’s group-stage elimination from Euro 2012.

Ireland suffered defeats to Croatia and Spain in their first two Group C matches of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

But Trapattoni, 73, believes he has the ability to take the country to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, after guiding Ireland to their first major tournament since 2002.

“I think that we deserve to stay on,” Trapattoni told reporters, referring to the coaching team he has formed with assistant Marco Tardelli.

“The reason is we have achieved qualification (for the European Championship) for the first time in 24 years.

“I think it is our right to stay on. I have enthusiasm to remain. But I ask you, how much value do you give this team for reaching the Euros?

“I know how much. I am proud to come here with this team and these players.”

Trapattoni insisted he could develop a winning formula to reach the next major tournament by refocusing his squad.

“We will start again (next) season, but we cannot change all. In Italy we change four or five players, but not here.

“When a team loses, only the manager is to blame,” he said, before laying some responsibility on his players and explaining how his team failed on the big stage.

“We conceded a goal after two minutes and 30 seconds against Croatia, and again a goal after four minutes against Spain.

“It is very difficult against these teams. After those minutes, everything changes, including the system … everything.

“You give the advantage to a strong team, and then it becomes very difficult. This happened against Croatia and happened again with Spain.

“Our players do not have the habit of playing in a tournament like this. We had an attitude in our games that I have not seen in two years.”

Ireland begin their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with a match against Kazakhstan on September 7.

They have been drawn in Group C alongside Germany, Austria, Faroe Islands and Sweden, as well as Kazakhstan.