The last 16 of the World Cup has thrown up a potential giant killing with three-time champions Italy taking on unfancied Australia on Monday.
KAISERSLAUTERN: The last 16 of the World Cup has thrown up a potential giant killing with three-time champions Italy taking on unfancied Australia here on Monday.
The Italians have been present at every World Cup since 1962 and are among the favourites to win the trophy, despite their recent failures in major tournaments.
They are unbeaten in their last 21 international matches, a run which includes friendly wins against World Cup hosts Germany and Holland.
The Australians are appearing at their first World Cup for 32 years, but their stirring first round performances suggest they could cause an upset.
And their coach, Guus Hiddink, knows what it takes to beat Italy having masterminded South Korea's shock 2-1 victory over the Azzurri in the second round of the 2002 World Cup.
“Its going to be fantastic,” said Australia winger Harry Kewell.” We weren’t even supposed to get this far. A lot of people wrote us off, but we were quietly confident and we don’t fear anybody.”
“Against Italy we have got to out there and play our football and not worry about the opposition."
Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon is full of admiration for Hiddink, but predicted that this time the Dutchman's motivational skills will fall short.
“He's a great coach, we know that, and the results he has achieved speak for themselves," Buffon said.
“He's achieved historic results with mediocre teams. But I believe that on our part many things have changed in the past four years. We are confident of going through."
Italy are trying to cope with the distraction of the Serie A match-fixing scandal. Four clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, have been charged with match-fixing and could face relegation if found directly guilty of sporting fraud.
Thirteen of the Italy squad play for the clubs involved, but nobody in the 23-man group, or coach Marcello Lippi, is implicated.
Buffon insisted the scandal would not distract them from the tournament. “It’s the maximum for a player to play at the World Cup and we won’t let anything spoil it," he said.
Australia are expecting Italy to be difficult to break down with the Azzurri conceding just one goal in the group stage, an own goal at that.
"Italy won't be giving a lot away and they're the kind of team that can protect a 1-0 lead well," said Blackburn Rovers defender Lucas Neill
"So they will be looking to get a goal whenever they can and we'll be looking to keep it as tight as possible for as long as possible because we feel stamina-wise and physically we can match any team."
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