Trap demands courage from fighting Irish

UNWORRIED and full of courage. That’s how Giovanni Trapattoni wants his Ireland side to face the French – “just like Trap the player when he came up against Pele”.

“This challenge reminds me of the Milan derby,” he told Italian journalists. “When it was my Inter team against the Milan of the ‘phenomenons’. They had Van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard. Arrigo Sacchi was the man in the dugout.

“Technically we couldn’t even get close to their level, but go and have a look who won most often in the end. My Inter side had bite.

“Football isn’t a science, it isn’t arithmetic. Being the better side doesn’t guarantee you will win.”

France coach Raymond Domenech is reputed to believe in astrology, but Trap’s beliefs is more conventional: “Astrology is nothing out of the ordinary. In my time I’ve come across coaches who would consult wizards. But that’s not my approach to life. I have faith and I look to heaven.”

As for human intervention, he is hoping that outsiders remain neutral, although those controversial decisions against his Italy team in the 2002 World Cup are obviously on his mind: “Michel (Platini) is a serious person. However I would like to remind FIFA that Signor Giovanni Trapattoni still bears the scars inflicted by Moreno the referee from Ecuador in the World Cup in Japan and Korea. I’ve already been burned once. That’s enough.”