Mark Lawrenson: 'Ireland won't qualify for Brazil'

Former international Mark Lawrenson does not believe that Ireland will qualify for the Brazil World Cup in 2014.

The Irish are in the same qualifying group as Germany and Sweden, and Lawrenson feels that it is too much of an ask for his old team to get through.

He also revealed that he thinks it will be some time before Giovanni Trapattoni's qualify for another major tournament as the pick of players is not good enough.

Lawrenson told Goal.com: "It's a very tough group. It's going to be extremely difficult. I think Germany have looked the best team in Euro 2012, that's including Spain. So it's going to be very difficult for Ireland even to finish second, I don't see them qualifying for 2014.

"I think it may be a while before they ever qualify for anything again. They haven't got that many players to pick from, a lot of players are from the Championship, and they actually need a group of players who are all good Premier League players to come through together."

Ireland open their World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign against Kazakhstan on September 7.