Trap moves into time added on

As fellow gaffers are wont to do, Rafa Benitez jumped to Giovanni Trapattoni’s defence this week, saying that to point the finger at the tactics used by the manager in Euro 2012 was misguided.

“I don’t see the system as a problem,” he said, “I think that’s a very simplistic analysis.” Maybe so, but not half as simplistic as his assertion in the next breath that if Ireland secure a win in Kazakhstan on Friday, “everyone will be happy again”.

There is so much weary disenchantment around Trapattoni’s Ireland now that it will take more than three points in Astana to restore the confidence in the manager which took such a terrible beating in Poland this summer. A win at home to Germany in October would help a lot more, but after seeing Ireland so badly exposed by three other top ten sides at Euro 2012, few will fancy his team’s chances of securing even a point against one of the superpowers of world football.