Buffon: we must show character

ITALY will need to display character to handle the problems the Republic of Ireland will inevitably cause them in tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier at Croke Park, Gianluigi Buffon said last night.

With two games to go, Giovanni Trapattoni’s side need two points to guarantee themselves a play-off place, while victory would lift them within a point of the world champions and keep alive their slender hopes of qualifying directly as Group 8 victors.

So the Juventus goalkeeper believes the world champions will have to weather a few storms to avoid defeat in Dublin and book their tickets for South Africa in the process.

“We’ll encounter a tough Ireland side,” Buffon told a news conference at Italy’s training camp near Florence.

“They won’t dive in straight away with their heads down, but there will be six or seven moments in the match when they’ll cause us trouble. We must not be unprepared in terms of character when that happens, because it would be wonderful to qualify on Saturday.”

Buffon said the Irish can consider themselves lucky to have Trapattoni, as they do not make managers like him any more.

“Coaches like him, (Cesare) Maldini and (Dino) Zoff have a great ability to handle the team and their relations with the players,” said the keeper, who played under the 70-year-old during his stint in charge of Italy between 2000 and 2004.

“They came from the old school of football and brought the weight of their experience to the field, so they are unrepeatable personalities. Trapattoni was more calm and smiled more than Marcello Lippi, although I remember he could get pretty angry too.”

One of the few blots on Trap’s glorious coaching record was his experience as Italy manager, when he constantly came under fire for being too defensive as his side went out of the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 early on.

But Buffon insisted that experience had not affected his standing, at least among his former players.

“He defined the character of our national team for several years, albeit with ups and downs,” he said.

“But that does not undermine what we have always thought of him as a person, the esteem we have always had for him.

“Wherever he’s gone, he’s always won easily or come close to winning. Things didn’t go well with the national team, we were a bit unlucky at Euro 2004. We went out at the group stage with five points.”

Buffon is one six Juventus players being tipped by Italian media to feature in the Azzurri starting line-up tomorrow.

The others are defenders Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Grosso and Nicola Legrottaglie, midfielder Mauro Camoranesi and Vincenzo Iaquinta who, is normally a forward but may be used on the left wing in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Lippi will be hoping the contingent do not take their shaky club form into the national team with them.

The Turin outfit have dropped to third in Serie A after picking up just two points from their last three league games and they are still seeking their first win in the Champions League this season.

A seventh Juve man, Claudio Marchisio, is out with a knee injury, which means Sampdoria’s Angelo Palombo is likely to come into the midfield. Lippi is expected to repeat the experiment of using Andrea Pirlo in an advanced midfield position rather than his usual ‘quarterback’ role after it worked well in last month’s 2-0 win over Bulgaria. Alberto Gilardino is being tipped to start as a lone striker.

The Italians have repeatedly said this week that they will not play for a draw.

But Udinese forward Simone Pepe said that does not mean fans should expect a dose of champagne soccer that would silence recent criticism about the quality of Italy’s play.

“We’ve never been a spectacular team. I think first of all that we are a team with grit and character and we can excite the fans with this,” Pepe told reporters. His comments echoed those expressed by Daniele De Rossi on Wednesday.

“We only have eight matches to qualify in, so there isn’t time to think about being spectacular,” the Roma midfielder said.

“We’ve had great individual players in the past, such as Francesco Totti and Roberto Baggio, but we’ve never played like the Netherlands, Spain or Brazil. If we wanted to play like them you have to work from the grassroots and it could take decades, if it ever happened at all.”