Italians sore after draw with Danes

THE shoes didn't fit, the socks were too rough and the heat was too much.

Italy rolled out the excuses yesterday following its 0-0 tie with Denmark in 93-degree heat in its championship opener on Monday.

Star playmaker Francesco Totti left the field midway through the half to change his spikes on the sideline.

"It was like having your feet on boiling sand," he said. Totti said Nike had given him a new pair of cleats for Euro 2004 but he had to revert to the old pair. "It was very painful," he said. "I have two big blisters, one on each foot."

Defender Christian Panucci, Totti's teammate at Roma, said his socks were a problem. "I had blisters at the end of the game on my heels," he said. "The thread that these socks were made with is too rough."

Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso also had problems with his feet, but he wasn't complaining.

"Don't make me laugh about this story with the socks," he said. "Kenyans run hundreds of kilometres with bare feet."

Coach Giovanni Trapattoni acknowledged the heat was intense but refused to use it as an excuse. "In a team of 11 players, things become difficult when one, two, or three things are not in order," he said.