De Rossi anticipating intense atmosphere
The world champions need just a point this weekend to qualify for the World Cup as Group 8 winners, but the Roma player believes this will not be easy given the reception that awaits at Croke Park.
“Five days ago they told me the stadium had already sold out. The atmosphere in Ireland will be similar to Scotland,” De Rossi, a member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning squad, told a news conference yesterday.
“One of the most beautiful atmospheres I’ve experienced and one of my most beautiful memories since I’ve been playing football was when I heard the Scottish anthem. It was embarrassing (how good it was) and I think it’ll be the same in Ireland.”
De Rossi, who played in a 2-1 win over Scotland at Hampden Park two years ago that secured Italy’s qualification for Euro 2008, is also wary about the hosts’ desire to keep alive their slim chances of winning the group.
To do this Ireland need to win on Saturday, then defeat Montenegro four days later and hope Marcello Lippi’s side fail to beat Cyprus in Parma in their last match.
“They will go all out to beat us, because of the public and because they can still finish top,” he said.
“Naturally, it’s not our last chance. If we have to go through in the second match, we’ll be less happy but equally worthy of qualifying for the World Cup.”
De Rossi paid tribute to the job Giovanni Trapattoni has done with Ireland, but said he was not worried about the former Italy boss’s ability to cook up tactical surprises.
“In football there isn’t much new that you can invent,” he said. “Having taken Ireland up to this level is certainly another feather in the cap of a coach who has done great things throughout his career and continues to do them even though the years are passing by.
“Tricks, changes – I don’t think the coach needs to change his way of thinking in a radical way, being as he’s always obtained results.”
He added that he was looking forward to meeting the Irish on equal terms after Giampaolo Pazzini’s early red card meant Italy had to play almost all of April’s 1-1 draw between the nations in Bari with ten men.
“The first game against them was conditioned by the sending off,” he said. “So it’ll be a good test for us to play against a team that is performing strongly at their home, hopefully 11 against 11 this time.”
De Rossi said he would be pleasantly surprised if his in-form Roma team mate Francesco Totti and AC Milan centre back Alessandro Nesta came out of retirement before the World Cup in South Africa.
He also lent Lippi support over his controversial decision to keep overlooking Antonio Cassano, despite his excellent form for Sampdoria and the lack of invention Italy have frequently shown in attack of late.
“Cassano continues to do his job well, but so do lots of other strikers,” he said. “Maybe he’s the most outgoing, the most fun to watch, but if we look at the (number of) goals scored, I don’t see all this difference with the other forwards.”
Fellow midfielder Gaetano D’Agostino is also expecting a big tussle this weekend and echoed coach Lippi’s assertion on Tuesday that it would be wrong to play for a draw.
“It wouldn’t be the right mentality to go there to get a point,” the Udinese player said.
“We should go there to try and win to qualify early for the World Cup. We should be humble, run a lot and be united. We know it’s a difficult match and we know that they’ll try to win. But so will we.”
D’Agostino was also optimistic that suspended captain Fabio Cannavaro would not be missed too badly this weekend.
“Fabio is a great player, he’s our captain, so his absence is important,” he said. “But those who get called up to the national team know they are among the best in Italy and Italy’s defence is one of the best in the world. Whoever takes Fabio’s place is sure to do well.”
Cannavaro’s place in the centre of the Azzurri’s defence is likely to be taken by his Juventus team-mate Nicola Legrottaglie.
Meanwhile the Italian national team doctor said that a decision will be made on Friday whether to take Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio to Dublin or send him back to his club because of a knee problem.
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