Giants face nervy test

Three years ago France beat Por-tugal in the World Cup semi-final - on Wednesday both could fail to even reach the 2010 finals as they take narrow leads into their play-off second leg clashes.
France, champions in 1998, hold a 1-0 lead over the Republic of Ireland while Portugal hold the same advantage over Bosnia Hercegovina though the French unlike the Portuguese have the added advantage of it being an away goal.
The other two play-offs see Euro 2008 semifinalists Russia also looking a bit shaky as they take a 2-1 lead to Slovenia while Ukraine - who made the 2006 finals - have everything to play for when they host Euro 2004 champions Greece in Donetsk as they are tied at 0-0.
The French-Irish clash looks likely to be a high octane affair after the angry exchanges between rival players at the end of the match in Dublin on Saturday provoked by derogatory remarks by Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra.
"They were disrespectful and anti-Irish," commented Irish midfielder Keith Andrews.
"Everyone knows what he (Diarra) said but we don't need those to get ourselves motivated for the match."
The Irish, though, face a mountain of a task to overcome the deficit as they have not beaten a top-ranked side away from home since beating Turkey 3-1 in the Euro '92 qualifiers - which they didn't reach and to be fair the Turks really became a top side from 2000 onwards.
However, their veteran Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni used another statistic to add evidence to his belief that the men in green can turn it around.
"I have reminded my players that we scored in every one of our away matches in the qualifiers save against Montenegro (including world champions Italy) - a group that was of a better quality than that of France," said the former Italy national coach.
"Winning 1-0 may be enough as then it goes to extra-time and then penalties," he added.
His France counterpart Raymond Domenech was frank about where he saw the situation lying.
"We have to play, because for me the match begins at 0-0," said the sphinx-like coach, who guided France to the 2006 final but has rarely won over either the fans or the press.
"Our strong point is our ability to score goals. There is no point thinking they are coming here to pose us problems. We have to take the match by the scruff of the neck. Playing to win is the best fashion of doing it."
Bosnia and Portugal's match should be an interesting encounter given that Bosnian coach Miroslav Blazevic ever the eccentric handler - though it worked wonders with Croatia in the 1998 finals when he took them to the semi-finals where they led France before losing 2-1 - has promised some savage entertainment.
Coach Guus Hiddink is optimistic Russia will make it to the 2010 World Cup despite play-off rivals Slovenia grabbing an away goal.
Ukraine star Andrei Shevchenko has warned his teammates to be prepared for a tough battle against Greece.
"We and Greece have a 50-50 chance to reach next year's finals," Shevchenko said.
"In Athens we played very good in defence and, I believe, we could repeat such a performance in Donetsk."