Giovanni Trapattoni claims only one man was the difference between Ireland and Italy at Euro 2012

Former Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has been speaking about his time at the helm of the national team.

The Italian experienced the dizzying heights of guiding the Boys In Green to Euro before enduring the cushing blow of stepping down in September 2013 after a string of poor results. Trapattoni was very complimentary of the squad he brought to the tournament during an interview with Goal.com on Wednesday. Although the team lost all three group games to Croatia, Spain and Italy respectively, Trapattoni believes that they achieved something great by getting there.

"We did something great through hard work and I'm very happy to have had that experience."

The former Ireland boss even went as far to say that if it hadn't been for the class of Andre Pirlo, Ireland would have managed to get a result against Italy.

"When I trained Ireland, only the prowess of Andrea Pirlo managed to beat us. Ireland is a squad with great gifts in terms of character and never gives up." "On an athletic and physical level, they're leaders. Tactically, it's a team that has grown a lot."

Ireland lost 2-0 to the Italians in the final game of Group C. Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli got the goals that sealed the win for Italy.