Beware Trap the maestro, Platini warns

UEFA president Michel Platini has warned France coach Raymond Domenech about the threat of any team coached by Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni and has called his former Juventus boss “a maestro”.

The Frenchman stopped short of tipping the Irish to beat France in next week’s eagerly-anticipated World Cup qualifying play-off, but he was insistent that any Irish failure will not be down to Trap.

“Trapattoni knows,” said Platini. “He is a maestro of Italian football.

“Football held no secrets for him when I was playing for him. Since then, he has travelled, he has opened himself to new experiences, he has changed from playing with a libero and two man-markers to a 4-4-2 system.”

Platini was part of the most successful side in Juventus history in the mid-1980s, when under Trap, the Bianconeri won the Coppa Italia, the European Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup, the Uefa Super Cup, the Inter-Continental Cup and two Serie A titles.

That makes him uniquely qualified to assess the strengths of the coach who will be masterminding Ireland’s effort to reach South Africa.

“Trap is a great psychologist,” Platini told L’Equipe.

“He won’t make any tactical mistakes, he will pick the right players. He won’t fail in the analysis of the opponents, nor of their set-pieces or organisation. One thing is sure; it is not him who will make Ireland lose. He knows to win a game with a supposedly weaker team.

“He takes great care in analysing the opponents. But he still won’t be on the pitch. If Ireland misses a penalty, it won’t be his fault. He has mixed Irish fighting spirit and Italian culture into his side — but to be honest, that’s a cliché as Irish football, Dutch or Italian football no longer exists.

“The players all travel now.”