COUNTDOWN: The appointment was for a place called Cinisello Balsamo, an industrial hinterland of Milan. We had the precise address, but a typical Milanese March downpour made it just about impossible to recognise the car in front, let alone street signs that would lead us to the private hideaway of Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni.

Eventually, we pulled in at what we thought was the right address. Surely some mistake. We had pulled up in front of a busy garage, where some expensive looking Mercedes and BMWs were up on jacks, having their toenails polished.

In we walk and head for the little office. Behind the hatch-window is Giovanni Trapattoni in person, smiling broadly and patiently waiting for the foreign journalist.

So, what is a living legend of Italian and world football doing sitting in the office of an obviously busy, upmarket garage? The garage is owned by "Franco", a buddy with whom Trapattoni once formed a business partnership and with whom he has retained a lifelong friendship, still keeping his own private office here above the workshop.

Trapattoni is that type of person. Buono come il pane - good like bread - as they say in these parts. Notwithstanding a 29-year coaching track record so full of leagues titles (seven in Italy, one in Germany) and cups (Intercontinental, Champions, UEFA, etc) that it fills half a page of the Annuario Del Calcio Mondiale, Trapattoni remains faithful to his Milanese background.

As he prepares for next Wednesday's prestige England v Italy friendly at Elland Road, Trapattoni is perhaps just about the only Italian who took some comfort from Italy's third consecutive Champions League whitewash, spectacularly realised by Liverpool's 2-0 drubbing of AS Roma at Anfield last Tuesday night.

"There's no doubt that the elimination of Juventus and Roma gives the international players a chance to rest and recoup energy that they would otherwise have used up in Champions League games," he says. "Maybe, it will give them an extra motivation, too, when it comes to the World Cup."

Being accustomed to success, Trapattoni (unlike many of his compatriots) has not been cast into existential crisis by the poor Champions League results of Italian clubs. "I'm not worried. When it comes down to the crunch, our football has always come through. My Italy is a very competitive side."

The 63-year-old Trapattoni looks more like an ageing movie idol than a football coach. Every now and then, though, something of that famous grinta (bottle in football-speak) shows through.

That same "bottle" made him a household name in Germany on the day he opted to hammer home a few critical points about one or two complacent stars in his Bayern Munich side. In a celebrated news conference, and using a mixture of imperfect German and fist-thumping of the table, Trapattoni left no one in any doubt that he meant business. Within weeks, his infamous outburst had been made into a best-selling rap song. Within months, Bayern had won the title.

He admits freely that he had to raise his voice "just a little" at half-time in a recent Italy match against the US in Sicily.

On that occasion, the Italians had lived up to their formidable reputation for underwhelming greatly in friendlies, especially against international minnows like the US.

Rather than take the game seriously, the Italians had contrived to make the modest Americans look like world beaters for 45 minutes. Following that half-time chat, however, Italy finally started to play, going on to win 1-0.

One of the reasons that Trapattoni was keen to play England in a World Cup warm-up was precisely to avoid exactly that type of non-serious attitude. "You don't have to motivate players against England. This is a big game, a clash between two great footballing nations, big media interest, there's David Beckham in the opposition, it creates the right atmosphere for a serious test," he said.

His Italy, of course, have long been on everyone's short list of World Cup favourites, primarily because it is largely the same side as that which went so close to winning Euro 2000. Since then, the side has done nothing wrong in an unbeaten run to win a qualifying group that also contained Romania, Hungary, Georgia and Lithuania.

"We started well in the group, we got two excellent results, winning twice with Romania, and that was it. We played a few games that perhaps were not terrific performances, but on the whole we did well and qualified without any real worries. We scored a lot of goals and conceded very few."

Trapattoni also concedes that an already strong Italian squad has arguably become even stronger, thanks to the progress made by Roma captain Francesco Totti, the return of Inter striker Christian Vieri and the arrival of promising newcomers such as Inter defender Marco Materazzin and Atalanta midfielder Cristiano Doni. All four are likely to feature at Elland Road.

The cups, the medals, the match pendants, the pictures of handshakes with famous rivals (including Pele) and the awards that crowd out Trapattoni's office bear witness to his success.

Notwithstanding his experience, however, even Trapattoni admits that leading Italy into this summer's World Cup finals is probably his toughest ever assignment. For no matter what happens at Elland Road on Wednesday, it is this summer in Japan and South Korea that matters.

"I have a small bit of experience and I know only too well that a World Cup is a question of life or death for Italian fans and media. It's true that if we don't get to the semi-final, then we've failed. But that simply reflects the popularity of our football. If my best players are fit and well, we'll do okay. I would like to think that we can end up in the first four, all right, but we've got to go out there and play our games first."

His lengthy track record also means that Trapattoni has already experienced the difficulties and peculiarities of playing football in Asia. In that context, he expects the heavy, humid conditions to prove an important factor, one which could favour technically-gifted sides and African sides at the expense of hard-running, northern European sides.

"We've studied the climate closely. The problem is not so much the second or the third game, it is when you go to play the fourth or fifth match that energy becomes a problem. It is then that sides that can use their technique to save energy will be at an advantage. The better your technique, the more energy you save and that counts over seven games."

When you talk of seven games, then you are thinking of going all the way. As Italian coach, Trapattoni admits that he has to think that way.

"For the coach of England, Brazil or Italy, all that matters is winning and that's the biggest difficulty because only one team wins the World Cup."

And if you don't win?

"It's not in my nature to start thinking about the future, about what I'll do next. I've always thought of the future as a source of opportunity. However, if you're frightened you'll never know what the future might bring, if you're weak, you'll never get there, but if you have hope, there will be another great day for you."