THEY are good friends, could have worked together already and may do in the future, but while Mark Hughes and Giovanni Trapattoni will share a warm embrace and maybe even a drink before kick-off here this evening, the niceties will end the moment Blackburn Rovers take to the field against Red Bull Salzburg in the first round of the Uefa Cup.
Trapattoni was the Italy coach the night the Azzurri were beaten 2-1 by Wales at the Millennium Stadium in October 2002 and, impressed by the young upstart who had outwitted him, the former AC Milan and Juventus coach approached Hughes about the prospect of serving as his assistant at Tottenham Hotspur.
The job went to Jacques Santini, leaving Trapattoni and Hughes to go their separate ways, but while they will be reunited as respective managers of Salzburg and Blackburn, neither has ruled out the prospect of working together.
Blackburn’s biggest worry tonight is a terrible away record in Europe. The club have won only one of 16 European matches and never away from Ewood Park. “We are really conscious of the fact that in the past we have not covered ourselves in glory on our European travels, but we have an opportunity to put that right and make a mark,” Hughes said.
Flush with cash after a takeover by Red Bull, the drinks manufacturer, last year, Salzburg are four points clear at the top of the Austrian league. Their plastic pitch is unlikely to aid Blackburn’s quest either, even if this one bears little comparison with those that blotted grounds in the 1980s.
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RED BULL SALZBURG (probable; 4-2-3-1): T Ochs — L Bodnar, R Meyer, T Linke, M Dudic — E Carboni, N Kovac — C Tiffert, V Janocko, P Jezek — A Zickler.
BLACKBURN ROVERS (probable; 4-1-4-1): B Friedel — B Emerton, A Ooijer, Z Khizanishvili, L Neill — Tugay Kerimöglu — D Bentley, S Reid, R Savage, M G Pedersen — B McCarthy.
Referee: T Mikulski (Poland).