Pressure off Lippias Azzurri win puts Cassano in shade

IT would have been interesting to see the reception afforded to Marcello Lippi in Bari on Wednesday night had Italy failed to return from Montenegro with all three points in tow.

Reports in the Italian media last week suggested that the World Cup-winning coach would feel the wrath of the city’s fans after his refusal to select their hometown hero, Antonio Cassano, for national duty despite his impressive form in Serie A.

Whatever the grievances of the local tifosi, Fabio Licari from Gazzetta della Sport believes that national patriotism will overrule local pride when the Azzurri come to town.

“Okay, it is Cassano’s home town but I don’t think that people will be a fan of Cassano more than Italy,” said Licari. “Italy is always first. It is always a party in whatever part of Italy the national team play. I don’t think Bari will be any different.”

The knot in the nation’s collective stomach, tightened by unconvincing performances in Cyprus, Bulgaria and at home to Montenegro, has been unravelled greatly by Saturday’s victory in Montenegro.

Events in Dublin have also conspired to allow the Italian nation breath that bit easier.

“The reaction to this win is that, yes, it was a good match for us but the most important is the result in Ireland. We were all sure that Ireland could win against Bulgaria and that we would meet Ireland with the same points.

“Now, we play Ireland on Wednesday at home and with more points. That gives Italy more confidence. We are more safe. This was something we did not expect so this has been a very, very good day.”

Comfortable a victory as it was, Licari believes that it wasn’t the Azzurri’s best performance of the campaign. The best, he believes, was Italy’s first three-pointer of the campaign last September.

“I think that maybe the best match was the home win against Georgia. It was not a fantastic performance but Lippi was without a lot of players for that game and it was our first after a lucky win in Cyprus.

“That was a poor performance but not our worst. Our worst was the draw in Bulgaria. We deserved to lose in Cyprus but Bulgaria, I thought we could win that because they are not a good team. That was two points given away.”

And so on to Wednesday.

Italy and Ireland have enjoyed some memorable encounters down the years — Italia ‘90 and USA ‘94 chief among them, but this would be just another ordinary international for the home side were it not for the presence of one man.

Licari has followed the fortunes of Giovanni Trapattoni closely since he was named Irish manager and was the only member of the Italian print media present at the RDS last May when his fellow countrymen was officially unveiled.

Trap didn’t enjoy the best of times when he was coach of his own national team but he remains an institution in his home country and his return is eagerly anticipated.

“It will be a special situation because we could never have imagined that we would one day play against a national team with Trapattoni on the bench but this is football and we want first of all to win the group. We hope Trapattoni does well with Ireland but only so well that they come second place and maybe qualify through the play-off system.”