GROUP E
▲Italy 1 - 1 Paraguay
Coach Marcello Lippi was calm and confident yesterday despite reigning champion Italy’s failure to win their opening match of the World Cup.
PHOTO: AFP
Daniele De Rossi scored a second-half equalizer to earn the Azzurri a 1-1 draw against an ultra-defensive Paraguay in Cape Town on Monday night.
And with games against New Zealand and Slovakia to come, Lippi insisted that he was satisfied with their start.
“I have never seen a big team come to a World Cup Finals and start at 100 percent. Teams need to grow throughout a tournament and they do that through their results,” he said at Italy’s Casa Azzurri base here, just to the south of Pretoria.
“We’re not at 100 percent but that’s the same for everyone. I’m very satisfied with the progress the team is making. I would say 70 percent of the players are there and when the rest improve physically and tactically we’ll score goals and create more chances. There’s nothing to worry about,” he said.
He was also far from disappointed at Italy’s inability to break down Paraguay’s stubborn backline more than once.
“They’re a good team and they only moved over the half way line four times in the whole match,” he added. “I don’t think we showed them too much respect, I think we gave them just the right amount, maybe it was them who showed us too much given the waiting game they played.”
Lippi may have had a point about the big teams as England and France also failed to win their openers, but that was not the case for Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands.
“For every team it depends on your opponents. Germany had the best start but Australia are probably less strong and less organized than for example the US [England’s opponents]. Argentina played well and showed what they are capable of but Nigeria had their chances too, even if they could have conceded a second [they lost 1-0],” he said.
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