Giovanni Trapattoni, the Ireland manager, may have tried to dampen the expectation that he is the saviour of Irish football, but he had the green masses believing at Craven Cottage last night. The Italian earned his first victory, at his second attempt, when Ireland defeated a decent Colombia side to end a sequence of seven matches without a win, their worst run in 12 years.

“I am not God,” Trapattoni had said on the eve of Ireland’s 1-1 draw against Serbia at Croke Park on Saturday. Many of the 55,000 fans present subscribed to that statement after a laboured performance that, even for his first fixture, left much to be desired. Yet on a rainy night in West London Ireland produced a stirring display full of verve and vision. A dour end-of-season friendly it was not.

Not that Trapattoni got carried away, either. “We can improve another 20 per cent,” he said. “Sometimes we go forward too fast, but since we have started together we have surely improved. The players are happy in the dressing-room and I am happy for them. Because they run so much, they are tired, but they are happy.”

Trapattoni has much work to do before the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign starts in September, with a tough double-header away to Georgia and Montenegro. At least he has another friendly international, against Norway in Oslo in August, in which to fine-tune his plans. He also has to work out how to integrate his returning absentees, the likes of Andy Reid, Steven Reid, Shay Given, Steve Finnan and perhaps even the troubled Stephen Ireland.

Colombia were no mugs. They lie in fourth place in the South American qualifying series for the World Cup and are unbeaten in a campaign which includes a win over Argentina and a draw with Brazil. Yet they were behind after only three minutes last night. Liam Miller fed Robbie Keane and, with the aid of a deflection off Elvis González, the Ireland captain drove in his 33rd goal for his country.

Only the heroics of Dean Kiely, Given’s stand-in as goalkeeper, denied Colombia an equaliser. He saved well from Juan Carlos Escobar, Edixon Perea, twice, and Falcao García. In the second half, though, the Ireland defence got its collective act together.

“I wasn’t scared that we were going to concede,” Trapattoni said. “We were ready for them.” Come September, they should be ready for Georgia and Montenegro, too.

Ireland (4-4-2): D Kiely — J O’Shea, R Dunne, P McShane, D Delaney — A Keogh (sub: W Hoolahan, 90min), L Miller, G Whelan, A McGeady — K Doyle (sub: D Murphy, 86), R Keane. Substitutes not used: J Murphy, S Kelly, S McPhail, S Long, S Scannell, K Foley, D O’Dea, K Westwood, A Bruce, O Garvan.

Colombia (4-2-2-2): R Zapata — R D Bustos (sub: G Vallejo, 46), C Zapata, L A Perea, E González (sub: P Armero, 70) — C A Sánchez, F Guarín — M Torres (sub: G Hernández, 73), J C Escobar (sub: E Soto, 63) — F García (sub: R Polo, 63), E Perea. Substitutes not used: A Julio, W Moreno, S Motta, J Amaya, C Valencia, G Vallejo.

Referee: M Clattenburg (England).

Explore International Football

• Euro 2008