Trap: 'I know how good a job we've done for Ireland'

In a rambling and at times incoherent press conference, Trapattoni tried to underline what he has achieved in the last four years.

"People forget the victories. In my life, what I have done until now, and now also with this team, is improve teams. That is the life of the manager.

"You can lose because of a referee's mistake or because of another mistake. For us, it's not a great problem. For me, it's no great problem."

Trapattoni also tried to turn Glenn Whelan's claim that Ireland's midfield is designed to fail into a positive.

"It's all right, what Whelan said about opponents having one more player.

"I asked them three years ago why when they attacked and lost the ball, they walked back and left the opposition with an extra player, and they score? If you go back with him, he can't score."

Clearly, Trapattoni believes that Whelan and Keith Andrews have been let down in the past by team-mates who should have helped them.

Whelan's outburst was another sign that Trapattoni's squad is less than fully united but Trapattoni is not feeling any extra pressure.

"I have been concentrating only on watching Greece many times and which players are important.

"In this friendly game, I want also to try one or two new players to find new energy, new players. They can help us also for the future.

"That is also our job, to discover other players. First is the result, and second is to try to discover also different players and give them the confidence.

"Maybe I am a little bit presumptuous, but I know how good a job we have done in the last two or three years.

"We have changed the team, discovered other players and we achieved qualification for the Euros, so I think we have done our jobs well until now."