Trap’s Ireland set to enter Lions’ den

If, as their famous motto has it, Barcelona FC is more than a club, then I think we are equally entitled to bill Ireland v England as more than a friendly.

From the moment he first unveiled his squad for Ireland’s four end-of-season games, Giovanni Trapattoni has been stressing the primacy of next week’s World Cup qualifier against the Faroes.

And, of course, he’s right. “Friendly is friendly,” as he would say himself. Competitive matches with qualification points at stake are what international football is really all about — even when the opposition is as decidedly unglamorous as that provided by our island friends from the North Atlantic.