Oh, and not forgetting the World Cup…

WITH all eyes now focused on the European Championship finals next summer, there’s a reminder today that there are further big tests in store for Giovanni Trapattoni and his players come the autumn.

Representatives from the six nations comprising Group C for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil meet in Frankfurt this morning to try to agree a fixture schedule for their qualifying games.

The associations of Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Austria, the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan will all attend the meeting, with Irish interest being represented by a delegation led by FAI chief executive John Delaney. Giovanni Trapattoni will not be attending but will be available for consultation, as required, by phone at his home in Milan.

Speaking this week, after his players had achieved qualification for next summer’s Euro finals, Trapattoni was in understandably relaxed mood about today’s event but, when pressed, he did allow that, ideally, it would be better for Ireland to avoid Germany in the opening game or two, especially if the schedule awards home advantage to the group’s top seeds.

Other than that, the manager expressed no strong preference, though he hinted that he would not be averse to a rerun of the Euro fixture schedule which saw Ireland meet the two teams deemed the easiest in their group — Armenia and Andorra — in their two opening games.

Of course, hindsight now tells us that the Armenians were a much tougher proposition than their lowly seeding suggested, something which Ireland were unknowingly able to exploit by beating them in Yerevan, through Keith Fahey’s vital goal, before they really began to hit their stride.

Ironically, the fixture list for the Euro qualifiers had to be imposed on the participating nations after objections, mainly from the Armenians, had prevented a deal being done on an agreed schedule.

Trapattoni’s preference for the least taxing possible start to the World Cup campaign — say, for argument’s sake, the Faroe Islands away and Kazakhstan at home — reflects his abiding concern that his players will not have reached peak condition so early in their domestic season.

And, of course, next year, the pre-season gap for many of them will be even shorter, given their participation at the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine in June.

However, that’s the sort of managerial headache that Giovanni Trapattoni is only too happy to have.