Trap seeks gain from the pain

IN the VIP lounge at Dublin airport last night, as he awaited his flight home to Milan, the emotion of the preceding 24 hours finally got to Giovanni Trapattoni.

After earlier appearing in front of the live television cameras at a press conference devoted almost exclusively to the controversy surrounding Wednesday night’s extraordinary game in Paris, Trapattoni now found himself in rather more intimate conversation with a small group of football journalists when he was asked if, like many of his players, he had himself been tearful after the final whistle in the Stade de France.

His eyes suddenly filling up, the 70-year-old Italian quietly replied: “Do you want me to cry again?”