Livewire star Coleman learning fast

Seamus Coleman is learning the ropes at a rate of knots, off the pitch as well as on it.

Near the end of Ireland’s scoreless draw in Stockholm, as he was shaping up to take a free-kick, he was seen to exchange some seemingly sharp words with assistant manager Marco Tardelli before goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly stepped forward to calm things down.

Up in the press box, not everyone could resist the temptation to discern the seeds of one of those management-player face-offs which have been a recurring feature of the Trapattoni era, perhaps another example of things getting lost, or maybe even getting heated, in translation.