Premium Ireland beat Leaded Italy in Standard Liège

Trapattoni and Prandelli before the match

Ireland 2 - Italy 0

With two Italian managers and 20,000 of the 21,564 fans wearing blue and white you might be forgiven thinking this friendly was an all Italian affair.

With a plucky Irish team devoid of regular starters winning the game you might be forgiven thinking this friendly was an all Irish affair.

In fact it was neither. This was an all Liège affair, because it was bewildering, surprising and at times upsetting. And let me tell you these adjectives sum up Liège.

Bewildering: Liège. Why Liège? Not Dublin or Rome. Not London or Paris. Not even a capital city (sorry Wallonia, you ain't no country). Apparently there is a big Italian expat community in Liège, and in fairness this was evidenced by the turn out in the stadium which was packed with azzuri. So this morning I asked my Italian colleague why were there so many Italians in Liège. He replied, "Because of the mines". Eh, right...

Watson! Find me my pipe.

Surprising: Well Ireland won didn't they? Beat the 2006 World Champs fair a square. What's surprising about Liège? It's ugly. In fact it's fugly. In spite of being the capital of Wallonia and the third biggest city in Belgium, Liège is ugly. Additionally surprising considering the Frenchy-Belgians always turn themselves out so well. However the stadium remained true to Walloon loonyness and the (unsurpirsing) quirkiness of Belgium: all food and drink was banned in the stands. Hmmm.

Watson! Forget the pipe, bring the whisky; this problem needs decanting.

Upsetting: With all the Irish dotted around Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany scrambling for rental cars, trains and/or taxis to get to the game, Liège just decided to take advantage of our naivety and turned awkward. First there were the locals, who were about as helpful as the nonexistant sign posts. Then there was the Liège road system which resembled a 5 year old's scalectrix track after the five year old went all Las Palmas on the track. And finally there were the wonderful people from B-rail who decided to cancel the last train out of Liège, stranding all sorts of nice Irish-Brusselians.

Watson! Call a cab, we're giving up.

But aren't the bewildering, surprising and upsetting nights always the best?

Keith Andrews and Simon Cox fire Ireland to victory over Italy in Liège (The Guardian)

PS I should mention that it was the best of craic and as the fella says, "The lads played brilliant!"