Everton defender Seamus Coleman came in for special praise for Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni after his man of the match performance in the 1-0 defeat to Greece.

Coleman was so good that Trap all but promised him a starting role against Sweden in the World Cup qualifier next March.

Trapattoni said, “Coleman was fantastic, he was the man of the match. We know him and we have told him he is important to us for the future.

“I have said many times, the midfield of our team is not only the four midfielders, we have two more, the right and left-backs.

“Seamus is fast, he can recover the ball, he has a good personality and at this moment, he has a very good future.”

Annoyed by the result and the failure of the referee to award Ireland two penalties, Trap was also impressed by second half substitute Wes Hoolahan as he finally won his second Ireland cap.

The Italian said: “Hoolahan was very good. He confirmed the quality we know he has. He’s a good option maybe if we need to have one striker and at the moment, we have no other players in this position.

“Football is about results, but we had some good situations and three or four of the players showed their personality in this difficult game.”