Managers' reaction: Emmet Malonegets the lowdown from Angelo Anastasiades and Giovanni Trapattoni

SOME THINGS, they say, never change and as the managers dropped by to share their views on Saturday night’s game in Nicosia supporting evidence for the old adage was piling up fast. For the Irish press corps it came in the slightly comedic, hangdog expression of the Cypriot manager, Angelos Anastasiades, who looked every bit as glum after seeing his team lose narrowly as he had when they had hammered Ireland on the same pitch three years ago.

For Anastasiades, though, his mood was down to the Irish team which, he felt, was every bit as poor as they had been on their last visit to the GSP Stadium.

“It was a very bad game,” he observed funereally. “Both teams had no rhythm to their game. They (Ireland) are a very bad team. They didn’t play well organised football, at all. They just tried to take advantage of the heads of their players. They played only long balls.”

To be fair, he didn’t put much effort into talking up his own lads either although he did still feel they’d been hard done by.

“It was our worst performance of the qualifiers but we still deserved a draw,” he said with a sigh before adding: “And when I say it was our worst performance of the campaign, I mean for a very long time.

“We had a very bad game tonight because we have very undisciplined players. The mistakes we made we paid dearly; for the second goal we made a very stupid mistake.

“But we can’t blame the goalkeeper,” he continued. “He had a very good game. He has played only one game this year and he is missing the feeling of space.”

Perhaps a little ominously, he concluded by remarking that the defeat had left his side with nothing to play for in their remaining games (qualification had technically still been possible prior to Saturday’s defeat and at least one player had talked about a win keeping their “dream” alive), an observation intended, perhaps, to prepare us in advance for a Bulgaria win in Nicosia next month.

“With this defeat,” he said, “we’re still lower in the table so we have nothing to chase and the morale of the players is going down which is a problem we will have to face in the remaining games.”

Fear not, though, Anastasiades’s team talks will surely provide more than enough inspiration to see the players through.

Trapattoni’s, it seems, may well have helped the cause significantly on this occasion for the visitors were better after the break than they had been

before it and improved significantly in the immediate run-up to the goal.

The Italian, needless to say, was in fine fettle when he arrived to reflect on a win he reckoned his players had just about deserved. Asked about his opposite number’s view on the similarity between his team’s performance and that of the one managed by Steve Staunton, he reacted light heartedly.

“I respect his opinion but also yesterday I saw once again the 5-2 game,” he said, while suddenly turning to look into space and making a face that suggested the comparison was something akin to lunacy.

Trapattoni did readily acknowledge that his side had not played well. Asked if this had been his side’s worst away performance of the campaign, he replied, to the mild surprise of most journalists present: “Yes. We started well but after 20 minutes we lost our confidence. But I knew it would be very hard both psychologically because of the situation with the table and also because Cyprus are a good team.

“They are fast and pressed hard but sometimes you can be lucky and get a late goal.”

When it was put to him in a slightly accusatory tone that this proved he was a lucky manager, the Italian reacted with a hint of affected bewilderment,

insisting that he had conceded that much from day one before giving a brief recap of his life story; a moving tale of the son of a farmer who goes on to play football for great clubs, represent his country and then enjoy considerable success as a manager.

Whether the saga is to have a Hollywood ending will become a little clearer on Wednesday in Turin where Italy play Bulgaria in a game to be broadcast live here by RTÉ.

More than once, earlier in the campaign, the 70-year-old was asked how he wanted his homeland to do in group games and he used to reply that he wanted the Italians to win except when they came up against Ireland.

Now, with the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of qualification hanging in the balance his preferences have changed something.

“That Bulgaria don’t lose, at the minimum,” he replied when asked what he will be hoping for as he takes his seat at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin on Wednesday evening.

“I don’t think so,” he added, “but I hope so.”