Republic of Ireland will see off Armenia

Giovanni Trapattoni has yet to lose an away game as Republic of Ireland national team boss (unless you're ridiculously harsh and count last year's loss to Brazil on the neutral territory of the Emirates) so his side look an absolute steal at [1.74] to beat minnows Armenia.

It's true that the Boys in Green have made a mess of easy looking games before - such as needing 95 minutes to see off San Marino in 2007 - however those problems haven't been so apparent under Trap, while he also has a draw in Italy and 90-minute victory in France on his international CV.

Armenia have won just two of their last 17 matches, losing in that sequence to the likes of Moldova (4-1 at home!) and Estonia, so it's fairly clear that they will spend the next 14 months scrapping with Andorra, who are luckily for them probably even worse, to avoid finishing bottom of the group.

Further reason for Irish optimism is provided by the fact that in the Republic's last seven qualifying campaigns for major tournaments they have done the double over the team who wound up in last place.

Don't expect the most convincing triumph ever though - three of their last four wins on the road to those cannon-fodder nations came by 2-1 margins, and a repeat of that scoreline tonight is [9.4]. There'd be no shame in that for the visitors as Spain won in identical fashion last October!

Armenia v Republic of Ireland
Kick-off: 4pm
Live on Sky Sports 1

Fancy a big upset? Armenia are [6.0] to get the better of Trap's men...

Published: 3 Sep 2010