GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI called back his wide men for some extra tuition at the end of training in Malahide yesterday, Damien Duff, Aiden McGeady, Stephen Hunt and Liam Lawrence gathering around their manager in the centre circle while the rest of the squad made their way to the bus.

AC MILAN and Real Madrid shared the points to leave both on course for the Champions League second round.

ALEXANDRE PATO saved the blushes of fellow Brazilian Dida with a brace as AC Milan stunned Real Madrid at the Bernabeu last night to get their Champions League challenge back on track and inflict only a second competitive defeat of the season on their big-spending hosts.

ITALY have made it, and with a match to spare, just as they did when they won the World Cup in 1982 and 2006, as Marcello Lippi was keen to point out.

ITALY made their reservations for the World Cup finals in South Africa last night after a dramatically improved performance against Bulgaria in Turin.

Andrea Pirlo has kept his place in the team for Italy's World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria tonight.

Switzerland 0 Italy 0

MOHAMED HOMOS scored the only goal as Egypt claimed a memorable Confederations Cup victory over Italy in Johannesburg last night.

AS IF the result in Dublin wasn’t enough of a bubble-burster, Italy had to go and canter to the most straightforward of wins on what was supposed to be a potentially tricky, if short, hop across the Adriatic Sea.

ITALY and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has said his team would be wrong to underestimate Montenegro and focus on the top-of-the-group showdown against Ireland next week.

CHELSEA lead the way in England in nominations for the FIFPro World XI Players Awards, just one behind Barcelona, despite neither side winning the Champions League.

ITALY coach Marcello Lippi has left out veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero from his 23-man squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers in Ireland’s group against Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Spain 0 Italy 0 (Spain win 4-2 on penalties)

France and Italy walk out for their trans-Alpine clash at Zurich’s Letzigrund tonight knowing their Euro 2008 fate lies in the hands of Romania.

Barcelona have agreed a deal to sell full-back Gianluca Zambrotta to AC Milan.

Manchester United suffered a double blow with Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic ruled out of this Champions League semi-final second leg match.

Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has kept faith with the majority of the squad that played in last week’s goalless Champions League semi-final first leg against Manchester United for Tuesday’s return encounter.

Celtic’s top scorer Scott McDonald was the surprise omission for the second leg of the Parkhead side’s Champions League last-16 tie with Barcelona in the Nou Camp.

Scotland midfielder Lee McCulloch castigated Manuel Gonzalez after the Spanish referee awarded a controversial free-kick which led to the 2-1 defeat by Italy at Hampden and ended home hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008.

Scotland 1 Italy 2

SCOTLAND’S Euro 2008 qualification hopes suffered a blow as they lost to two Luca Toni goals as Italy won 2-0 in Bari.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez stuck with exactly the same side that produced such a shock result in the Nou Camp a fortnight ago.

BARCELONA will look to avoid an embarrassing early exit from the Champions League and an unwanted place in the history books tonight.

JOSE MOURINHO is confident Chelsea’s policy of signing superstars and emerging prospects will keep them at the summit of English football.

Kaizer Chiefs 0 Manchester United 1

Juventus full-back Gianluca Zambrotta will only consider a move to Chelsea if his club fail to reach an agreement with AC Milan, according to his agent.

Italy won the World Cup on penalties as Zinedine Zidane ended his wonderful career with a red card for a shameful headbutt.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi sprung no surprises when he named his team for the World Cup semi-final showdown against host nation Germany.

ITALIAN coach Marcello Lippi expects Daniele De Rossi to receive some harsh punishment for elbowing US forward Brian McBride in the face.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi will not belittle the threat posed by the United States when the teams meet today in Kaiserslautern.

AN ANALOGY by US striker Eddie Johnson — comparing the World Cup to war — has been exaggerated, US coach Bruce Arena insisted last night.

GIANLUCA ZAMBROTTA has been ruled out of Italy’s World Cup opener against Ghana.

Gianluca Zambrotta has been ruled out of Italy’s World Cup opener against Ghana.

MIDFIELDER Gianluca Zambrotta could miss Italy’s World Cup opener against Ghana on June 12 with a muscle strain.

Juventus 0 Arsenal 0 (Agg 0-2)

Juventus 0 Arsenal 0 (Arsenal win 2-0 on aggregate)

Juventus will give Alessandro Del Piero a late fitness test ahead of tomorrow’s game against Arsenal.

Patrick Vieira received a warm reception on his return to Highbury as Arsenal took on Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

Juventus 2 Werder Bremen 1 (Agg 4-4) (Juve win on away goals)

Juventus 2 Bayern Munich 1

Scotland came within 15 minutes of beating Italy today, for the first time in 40 years.

Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr threw caution to the wind and named a strong attacking line-up in a bid to gain a confidence-boosting win ahead of next month’s vital World Cup qualifier with France.

Jerzy Dudek will start between the posts for Liverpool as they bid to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Liverpool 2 Juventus 1