Argentina boss Daniel Hourcade: You only surprise top teams once

The Conrad Hotel, Dublin.

Just another day in another country and another pre-match press conference for Argentina head coach Daniel Hourcade, who is showing the patience of a saint at the end of a long, globe-trotting season that will end tomorrow after 11 months and roughly 186,000 air miles.

Only once does his calm and pleasant demeanour crack even a tad. It comes when one of the local journalists, having tickled his fancy with talk of their World Cup odyssey in 2015 and the explosion of joy it triggered back home, brings up the semi-final loss to Australia.