Prickly Trapattoni considering rethink

Giovanni Trapattoni opened a door and inadvertently stumbled into Hungarian manager Sandor Egervari’s post-match press conference in the Ferenc Puskas stadium last night, the Irish manager’s apology and generous smile — which was graciously accepted by Egervari — suggesting the Italian was in a good mood.

But his good mood quickly disappeared as another communications breakdown raised the temperature and left Irish journalists baffled as to his intentions against Croatia next Sunday. At issue was the fact that Trapattoni had clearly been perturbed by how Ireland were nearly put to the sword by a young Hungarian side in the Ferenc Puskas stadium. And now he was talking about having to make changes for the Euros, at least in the way Ireland would play, if not in terms of personnel.

The manager confirmed that “thank God” all his players were fit after the game but he had been worried by what he saw as the Hungarians at times threatened to tear the Irish apart without making them pay the price. Now, it appears that he may ask one of his strikers to drop back to make it a five-man midfield for during at least one of the Euro group games, possibly against Croatia and almost certainly against Spain.