GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI is confident his Republic of Ireland side can make it through to next summer’s World Cup finals.

The Republic ended their Group Eight campaign with a disappointing home draw against Montenegro last night, having already ensured their participation in next month’s play-offs, to end the first stage of the mission unbeaten.

They will face one of the four seeded teams – now confirmed as France, Portugal, Russia and Greece – on November 14 and 18 with a huge prize at stake.

‘‘This team can play against anyone if they have belief in our performance, our mentality and our plan,”

said Trappatoni, who saw Shay Given and Kevin Kilbane win their 100th caps.

‘‘We can go into the playoffs feeling confident and with belief if we play as we did against Italy on Saturday.

‘‘We must believe. We have built this team and we can do it.’’ Winners of Ireland’s group Italy saw coach Marcelo Lippi launch a scathing attack on the fans in Parma for the way they criticised the national team during last night’s 3-2 win over Cyprus.

Italy trailed by two goals before a hat-trick from Alberto Gilardino earned them a last-gasp win.

‘‘I am furious like a beast,’’ said Lippi. ‘‘If anybody has forgotten this, on the field out there were the world champions.

‘‘That means that we have won a tournament against all of the top nations in the world.

‘‘These lads are the world champions, they have just qualified to try and become world champions again, but do you think it is right to hear fans telling us to get to work at the first sign of difficulty?”

Portugal booked their spot in the play-offs with an easy 4-0 Group One victory over Malta.

Goals from Nani, Simao Sabrosa, Miguel Veloso and Edinho made it a comfortable evening for Carlos Queiroz’s side in Guimaraes.

The result means that Sweden will not be going to South Africa, despite a 4-1 win over Albania.

Croatia were the highestprofile casualties as their qualification bid ultimately ended in failure despite a 2-1 win in Kazakhstan.

Slaven Bilic’s side had needed Ukraine to slip up in Andorra, but that unlikely scenario never materialised as the eastern Europeans cantered into the play-offs with a 6-0 triumph.

It meant Croatia, ranked ninth in the world, failed to qualify for a World Cup finals for the first time since they gained independence in 1993 and marked them as the highest- ranked team to have missed out so far.