WCQ Preview: Cyprus – Italy

[FerrariTifosi27]

WCQ Preview: Cyprus – Italy

What: World Cup Qualifier, South Africa 2010, Opening Match, Group 8
Who: Cyprus vs. Italy
When: Saturday 6 September, 20:45 CET
Where: Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca

Cyprus Look To Famagusta Inspiration

Cyprus may be one of Europe’s minnows, having never qualified for a major championship, but the country has never been in better spirits in footballing terms.

Last month Anorthosis Famagusta beat Greek giants Olympiakos to become the first Cypriot team in history to reach the Champions League group stage. Meanwhile, Omonia Nicosia also eliminated another Athens-based side AEK in the UEFA Cup.

These recent successes have proved to Cypriots that they can compete with their Greek neighbours, whose national team of course famously won the European Championships in 2004.

Cyprus will not be expected to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but they can certainly hold some aspirations of not finishing too far away from second place in Group 8. With the exception of Italy, there are no other big guns, with Bulgaria, Ireland, Georgia, and Montenegro making up the rest of the group.

Despite finishing second-bottom of their Euro 2008 qualifying pool, Cyprus had their best ever-finish, racking up 14 points (just three points off third place), drawing with Germany and thrashing Ireland 5-2.

Angelos Anastasaiadis’ men may not be in the best form going into this game, after being pummelled 4-1 by Switzerland last month, but they will certainly leave their bodies on the pitch against Italy on Saturday night.

If they want to draw some inspiration from years gone by, then they can look back to February 12, 1983, when Cyprus achieved one of their most famous results, holding Italy to a 1-1 draw in a Euro ’84 qualifier in Limassol.

Then, just like now, Italy were world champions. Will history repeat itself?

The King Has Returned

Marcello Lippi is back! The legendary coach, who won everything in the game during two spells with Juventus, and famously led Italy to World Cup glory in Germany in 2006, has returned to his country’s throne.

Following the somewhat disappointing Euro 2008 under successor, and now predecessor, Roberto Donadoni, Lippi has set his sights on “rebuilding the foundation” for an Italian success.

Whether or not Italy have what it takes to repeat their World Cup triumph in South Africa remains to be seen, as virtually all of the first team who triumphed in Germany are now in their thirties, and many believe that this may now be a transitional phase.

Nevertheless, the early signs are that Lippi will mainly stick with the old guard, even if they did not impress during his first game back in charge – a 2-2 friendly draw against Austria in Nice last month, in which their opponents squandered a two-goal lead and scored two virtual own goals.

Now the serious stuff begins though, but despite facing a rather modest opponent in Cyprus, who are ranked 65th in the world, Lippi is taking nothing for granted.

"The easier we consider the challenge, the more difficult it will be," he warned earlier this week.

"Cyprus is an insidious trip, they are a national team that play well and we'll face them on a field without much grass. We'll have to be careful."

When all is said and done though, Italy should be expected not only to comfortably win on Saturday night, but to also go on and comfortably win Group 8.

FORM GUIDE

Cyprus

20/08 (Friendly): Switzerland-Cyprus 4-1
19/05 (Friendly): Greece-Cyprus 2-0
06/02 (Friendly): Cyprus-Ukraine 1-1
21/11 (Euro 2008 Qualifier): Cyprus-Czech Republic 0-2
17/11 (Euro 2008 Qualifier): Germany-Cyprus 4-0

Italy

20/08 (Friendly): Italy-Austria 2-2
22/06 (Euro 2008): Italy-Spain 0-0 (2-4 on penalties)
17/06 (Euro 2008): Italy-France 2-0
13/06 (Euro 2008): Italy-Romania 1-1
09/06 (Euro 2008): Italy-Holland 0-3

TEAM NEWS

Cyprus

Cyprus captain and record appearance maker Yoannis Okkas will spearhead his side's strike force, and may even be utilized as the lone frontman.

Possible Team: Antonis Georgallides, Alexis Yarpozis, Elias Charalambous, Paraskevas Christou, Andreas Constantinou, Chryssis Michael, Stelios Okkarides, Constantinos Charalambides, Constantinos Makrides, Stathis Aloneftis, Ioannis Okkas.

Italy

Captain Fabio Cannavaro is back following the injury he picked up on the eve of Euro 2008, while Luca Toni is also recalled after recovering from injury too. Juventus defender Nicola Legrottaglie keeps his place due to Giorgio Chiellini’s absence, while Marco Materazzi is deemed not fit enough yet.

In midfield, Rino Gatuso is present despite missing Milan’s game against Bologna on Sunday, but Antonio Cassano was snubbed again, as was Massimo Ambrosini. Siena goalkeeper Gianluca Curci was drafted into the squad on Wednesday as a replacement for Marco Amelia, who slipped a disc. Alessandro Del Piero has recovered from a muscular problem.

Possible Team: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Gamberini, Fabio Grosso, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi, Mauro Camoranesi, Luca Toni, Antonio Di Natale.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Ioannis Okkas (Cyprus)

Okkas was Cyprus’ top goalscorer during their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, and he will be relied on again for his leadership, experience and, above all else, his goals. The 31-year-old has played in Greece and Spain during his career, and will hope to use this international know-how to unsettle the Italy backline.

Antonio Di Natale (Italy)

It was Di Natale’s missed penalty that proved decisive in Italy’s Euro 2008 shootout defeat to Spain, and he will be keen to bounce back against Cyprus. The 30-year-old was in red-hot form in the opening game of the new Serie A season, scoring a superb double against Palermo, the second of which won Goal.com’s Serie A Goal of the Week.

PREDICTION

Italy are notorious for being a little sleepy in September matches, but they should still have enough to overcome Cyprus, even if I do not expect them to win by more than the odd goal.

Cyprus-Italy 1-2

[pires7]

being replayed on SBS on sunday - Les murray's football feature.

[Juventino]

Live on Rai tomorrow night/Sunday morning.

And a replay on ESPN I believe Sunday afternoon. So you get crap commentary but full game replay on ESPN, or decent commentary but not a full game on SBS.

[arxidi]

carn cyprus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hellas_08]

ela kypro

[barbarez01]

1-0

[Piola]

no better way to start a qualifying campaign than a win over the Turks

[delfino_1936]

no better way to start a qualifying campaign than a win over the Turks

[hellas_08]

2-0 okkas double

[Piola]

Aren't we a bit lucky

typical slow Italian start, Lippi needs to pull the team out of the slump since Berlino.

Still, despite the performance, beat Georgia in Udine and we'll set ourselves up nicely.

[LFTWNG11]

made heaps of chances.. Gila predictably wasted everything that came his way... but defensively, with both Gamberini and Grosso coming off, we looked crap with Barzagli (how shit has this bloke got?!?) and Cassetti (riomma scum) in there, both at fault in te Ciprio goal. They looked half decent as well... so credit to the Cypriots as well...

[1from1]

watch this one this morning and thought the italians were very lucky to come away with the win, looked fairly ordinary and cyprus missed some good chances aswell but a very well taken winner i must admit.

[pablo_g4rcia]

im proud of cyprus

they are a good team when they try

they did defeat Ireland 5-2 last year so there a team people shouldnt f#ck with

[The one and only]

no better way to start a qualifying campaign than a win over the Turks

Thats low boys very low

[Piola]

made heaps of chances.. Gila predictably wasted everything that came his way... but defensively, with both Gamberini and Grosso coming off, we looked crap with Barzagli (how shit has this bloke got?!?) and Cassetti (riomma scum) in there, both at fault in te Ciprio goal. They looked half decent as well... so credit to the Cypriots as well...

Cassetti shouldn't have even been in the squad let alone actually coming on to the pitch

Barzagli, playing in the Bundesliga isn't going to get better either, not doing much with that extreme talent.

I was looking forward to seeing Gamberini play for gli Azzurri, looks like we'll be waiting a while now.

I dont like criticising Lippi, what with him being the world's best coach and all, but he needs to introduce something new to this team

something like a Maggio, Cassano even a Balotelli.

At least Di Natale can now tell the critics back home to stfu with his goals. Was wrongly blasted at Euro.

[delfino_1936]

no better way to start a qualifying campaign than a win over the Turks

Thats low boys very low

relax man i know i was kidding

[Piola]

no better way to start a qualifying campaign than a win over the Turks

Thats low boys very low

relax man i know i was kidding

so was I, but its funny how Greeks suddenly become Cypriots when Cyprus does well.

be like the Italians suddenly becoming Sanmarinese when they eventually win a game

[ForzaChievo]

Good win for Italia.

Di Natale

[Piola]

Good result but not a good win.

[diegom]

a wins a win mate, 3 points in the bag

[olympiakos]

watching replay on sbs now, italy very lucky, i had to laugh at the slowness of the italian defender when cyprus scored the goal, italy were torn apart in first half

[Piola]

a wins a win mate, 3 points in the bag

Yea, getting a result is what we do best but mate, continue playing like this and we won't be so lucky. I'm confident we'll still qualify as we always do, but much improvement is needed.

The current Italian defence is so far off the quality of previous sides, its not funny.

and there's no reason why Cyprus cant challenge for 2nd in this group, if this is a usual performance from them. Not a bad side at all.

[delfino_1936]

what a fucken 2nd goal, brilliant play

[Juventino]

Bloody hell it was an undeserved win really. Both teams had chances to win, Cyprus came close from two late corners and we had a Gilardino chance he could not take and a Pirlo free kick that the keeper spilled, but Barzagli's rebound was turned away on the line.

Some real defensive problems. Ok it didn't help that two defenders were off inside 20 minutes, but still surely Lippi has some concerns. Not sure what sort of world we are living in where I and other Italians must worry about the defense, but it is happening now.

Oh and what the fuck was Cassetti doing with the Cyprus goal? Bloody clown, hardly worthy of a Roma starting spot so I'm not sure why he is in the team.

Winning goal was a well worked move and thank god as well.

[Piola]

btw a few decent managers doing the rounds in this group - Marcello Lippi for Italia, Giovanni Trappattoni for Ireland and Hector Cuper for Georgia.

[The one and only]

Il duce and delfino not a thing to really joke about

[pires7]

Tony Palumbo thinks Lippi left out Cassano because of a personality conflict?

[Juventino]

Tony Palumbo thinks Lippi left out Cassano because of a personality conflict?

There hasn't been anything public as far as I'm aware. We all know Cassano's character and maybe Lippi doesn't want to work with that. Lippi has had personality clashes with Baggio (at Juve) and Panucci (around about 4 years ago I think). But Cassano should be given a chance.

[Piola]

Tony Palumbo thinks Lippi left out Cassano because of a personality conflict?

There hasn't been anything public as far as I'm aware. We all know Cassano's character and maybe Lippi doesn't want to work with that. Lippi has had personality clashes with Baggio (at Juve) and Panucci (around about 4 years ago I think). But Cassano should be given a chance.

Lazio is a good example of what can go wrong when a coach calls up players he gets on well with at a personal level rather than the better options.

[LFTWNG11]

Gamberini looked good for the short time he was on... Barzagli is a shambles... Cassetti/crap... where is Maggio?!?!

Pirlo is still a gun, and Di Natale, the bloke has some real real talent.