A tale of two Italians
“Capello has probably never had to coach a worse group of players than this one,” said Giancarlo Galavotti of the Gazzetta dello Sport after England’s laboured victory over Andorra in Barcelona.
“The idea was to give a chance to some fresher forces in the hope they’d show more hunger for the ball than the traditional first-choice players.
“But what a deception from Johnson, Walcott and Downing, in chronic difficulty with the basic elements of the game.”
Not that the more senior players impressed. Frank Lampard was like “an empty waiting to be returned”, while Wayne Rooney was “caged in the restricted spaces of his brain”.
“Incapable of following an intelligent script to undermine the Andorran catenaccio, the lions of England fell back on the same old long ball game — a joy for their hosts, who were never forced to concede risky free-kicks. Just as well that Joe Cole had enough class to deliver a relieving double.”
Over in Mainz it was quite a different story. Italian journalists have more affection for Trap than Capello – for a start he provides much funnier quotes – but the pundits have all been predicting that the Ireland manager would find it very hard to persuade his players to change their ways and adapt to a more ‘continental’ approach.
You could almost hear the sound of jaws dropping “This New Model Ireland have already learned a lot of tricks from their ‘San Giovanni’,” said Luca Calamai, immediately invoking the memory of Saint Jack of Blessed Memory.
“They succeeded in keeping hold of the ball, took advantage of opportunities to counter-attack, restrained themselves from launching six or seven-man assaults, and also managed to waste a few precious seconds on throw-ins.”
Impressed above all by Aiden McGeady – “murderous acceleration” – and by Steven Reid in midfield, the Gazzetta also noted that Stephen Hunt showed himself to be a decent alternative to Damien Duff.
A little wake-up call for the World Champions then, with praise for Trapattoni mixed with concern that Italy were very fortunate to come away from their game in Larnaca with three points.
ITALIAN sides are notoriously slow starters early on in the season – and most of their players have only had a couple of competitive matches.
Yet the pundits are obviously worried that Marcello Lippi faces a tougher task in rebuilding than might have been expected.
The usual preoccupation for Italy is whether they have the players to put the ball in the net.
Against Cyprus their main striker, Luca Toni, was sluggish and off the pace, and Alberto Gilardino was frequently isolated up front.
Luckily for them Antonio Di Natale scored twice from two chances. Their least-known striker now has nine goals in 23 games.
But the real worry at the moment is the defence. Had Gianluigi Buffon not been at his world-class best, Cyprus would have won a famous victory – and by more than a single goal.
None of the back four were convincing, and with The Three Gs — Fabio Grosso, Alessandro Gamberini and Gennaro Gattuso – all injured there is genuine concern that Georgia might cause a few headaches in Udine. Certainly Group 8 looks trickier than expected from the Italian point of view.
Bulgaria were seen as the main contenders when the draw was made. But Montenegro have several forwards who can score goals at the top level – with two strikers from Serie A, Mirko Vucinic (Roma) and Fiorentina’s new signing Stevan Jovetic, backed by Simon Vukcevic of Sporting.
Ireland will never be underrated by the Italians – Ray Houghton saw to that.
But it’s fair to say that Italy felt reasonably confident. There was talk that Trapattoni was past it. The Irish only knew one way of playing. Not after Saturday’s game.
“Playing on a neutral ground was obviously a handicap for Georgia,” observed the Gazzetta. “But beware of thinking of it as an alibi… (Ireland) are acquiring the secrets of the masters that will make them still more dangerous. Lippi will keep a close eye on them.”
It seems that there will be rather fewer Italian blessings than expected for San Giovanni tomorrow evening.
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