REPUBLIC OF IRELAND v ITALY MANAGERS' REACTION: WE SAT there in the limbo of the Croke Park press room waiting for Giovanni. Sat there wondering how it would be retailed. A point gained? Three points lost? Another draw masquerading as a glorious victory?

Would the entertainment on offer in the first 10 minutes and the final 10 minutes distort the memory of the ordinariness of the Irish performance in the intervening 70 minutes?

Marcello Lippi came in all silver-haired and tanned and expressed his contentment. The Italians, notoriously slow starters in everything, had qualified for a World Cup with one game left of the qualifiers. That made him as happy as it would have made us if we had pulled it off.

And he was sharp too. He was asked about luck. His team had just got a draw against a rickety-enough Irish side. How lucky would they have to be to do well in South Africa? He spoke about luck, and then concluded that he hoped Ireland would be lucky enough to play a lot of matches, as they had in Bari, with 11 men against 10. Ouch.

Any tips for Ireland in the play-offs? “Maybe they should score in the last two minutes.”

Ah Marcello, will ya stop.

Giovanni came among us speaking in his mesmerising English. Sometimes it is like a game show putting together the sense of what he is saying from the mangled poetry with which he happily expresses himself. On Saturday night he looked happy but talked sad.

You could understand why. A 2-2 draw with his home nation kept his Irish team unbeaten and preserved his standing in Italy as a beloved icon of the game possessed with a sorcerers’ touch. He hadn’t lost face. He hadn’t won a famous victory.

Given the timing with which events unfolded his side had got less than they deserved. Given the way the two sides played they had got more than they deserved.

“It would have been a win for the prestige. The qualification is something else, because Italy no lose against Cyprus on Wednesday. We are disappointed with the last three minutes. But we are a young team with only four or five senior players, so for us it was a great lesson.”

We nodded. Despite the surprising heroics of the Cypriots in tonking the Bulgarians on Saturday, we always knew the Italians were never really going to trip up over Cyprus in two days if qualification were on the line.

Instead they qualified with a game to go, a feat Lippi noted that they had achieved only for the tournaments of 1982 and 2006, both of which they won.

The casual mention of that sort of history reminded us that from the outset we had never truly expected to win Group Eight, and being in the qualifiers with a game to go was our own little achievement.

“Each team has its own potential,” said Giovanni. “I believe that we could have won. Football is about goals and results. With silk you can make a tie, with cotton you can make a shirt. Just a measure of different materials you must work with.”

We entered these gnomic words into our notebooks. Silk = Tie. Cotton = Shirt. Nylon? Denim? Polyester? More questions than answers.

Now Giovanni was ruminating on happiness, in an odd way.

“My contract was renewed. I thank my FAI for their faith in me. The work that has been done here has been seen and evaluated. We have brought in 10 or 12 new players. This is a project that is growing.”

Speaking of happiness, with three minutes left had he thought that the game was won?

“Yes, I thought the game was won. I am proud about this team, it is a great team. It is a pity because they are a bit disappointed. So am I. In the last 10 minutes we could win this game for the great prestige.”

How to explain then the lapse at the end. As Giovanni noted, it wouldn’t have happened to Italy. Although it did happen on 86 minutes and 26 seconds in Bari. Culturally, though, we are different.

“The team played very, very well. We worked hard, played well on the night. We conceded a goal on the counter-attack, something which we wouldn’t do with more experience. There are 20 players in this team, they come from six or seven different clubs with different habits. That is what is difficult when you are building a team.

“Italy probably deserved a goal. That is not the point, but something like this would not happen in Italy because the players have the same habits.”

And so it petered out. As anti-climactic as the ending of the game. Just time for one question about the disappeared. Not really an Andy Reid question, just a hinting reference for the sake of completion. Giovanni is never going to bring back the Sunderland troubadour. We are never going to stop missing him, searching for him.

“Are you happy with the players you have got going into the play-offs?”

Giovanni smiles broadly. Sometimes when he smiles like this, though, and begins to speak through the smile he could be a Corleone and not a Trapattoni. He expresses his contentment with the chaps he has and doesn’t seem to feel any hankering for a guitar-playing, creative type who has recently lost weight.

Onwards and sidewards then to Wednesday night’s dead rubber with Montenegro.