TWO CONSIDERATIONS dominated Italian reaction to last night’s draw for next summer’s Euro 2012 finals – one, this is a tough draw and two, we have to deal with that “young fellow” Trapattoni again.

Senior football writer, Xavier Jacobelli, put it this way: “There will be three Italian coaches at Euro 2012 and that is a testimony to the quality of Italian football.”

The oldest of those three is a young fellow who was born back in 1939, someone who has become a living legend in world football.

Speaking in Kiev last night, Trapattoni expressed the hope that neither his Ireland nor Italy will have to suffer too much when the two sides meet on June 18th, next summer. Given that Spain are also in the group, that looks very unlikely. “One thing is for certain, we’re going to enjoy ourselves,” said the Italian.

Whilst prestigious Italian sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport suggested that the draw had done few favours for Italy, Italian coach Cesare Prandelli was a deal more sanguine, admitting he would have preferred to avoid Ireland: “All the groups are difficult. We didn’t want to play against Trap for all sorts of reasons but, for us, the important thing will be to arrive at the opening games, fit and well. You might suggest that we’ll be playing for second position (behind Spain) against Ireland and Croatia. It will all depend on how well we are at that moment but, knowing Trap, he’ll be working his lot up to the very last moment to pull off something.

“I don’t know what I will say to Trap before that game. We talked together today, he’s very good at making situations like this easy and normal.”