Scotland v Italy: Troubles at home may well prompt a vintage Italian effort, writes Paddy Agnew.

There is a new set of pictures these days on the walls of the Italian Football Federation's celebrated Coverciano training centre, near Florence. Alongside grainy images of Vittorio Pozzo's two-times world champions of the 1930s and more recent, full-colour shots of coach Enzo Bearzot being hoisted in triumph after Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph, there is a whole new set of images recalling Italy's World Cup success in Germany last summer.

In chronological order, the pictures retrace Italy's path to glory in Berlin, starting with their opening game, against Ghana, and finishing with every Italian penalty scored in the shoot-out that marked the dramatic finale to Italy's defeat of France in the Berlin final. Pride, justifiable pride, leaps off the wall at the beholder.

Just this week, however, up at Coverciano, the atmosphere has been anything but one of pride and celebration. As Italy get ready for a crucial "do or die" Euro 2008 qualifier against Scotland in Glasgow today, their preparations have been greatly disturbed by the violent events that marked last weekend's league programme.

The death of a 26-year-old Lazio fan, Gabriele Sandri, shot by a policeman at an autostrada service station on Sunday morning has again cast Italian football in the ugliest possible light. It was bad enough the ill-fated Sandri died because of, most probably, a tragic police error, police mistaking him and his companions for robbers who had just committed a crime.

With all due respect to the memory of the popular young Roman DJ, however, the nationwide violent reaction to his death was arguably even more devastating for Italian football. Images of rioting fans in Bergamo, Milan and Rome flashed around the world.

Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano came back from a weekend state visit to Qatar, in the Middle East, bemoaning the fact all the TV stations of the world were once again showing the dark face of Italian football and of Italy.

Thus it was that every time Italian players and their coach Roberto Donadoni sat down with the media this week to discuss today's vital match, they were met with questions about football violence and "ultras" (hard-line fans) rather than about how best to outmanoeuvre the Scottish manager, Alex McLeish, and his high-flying band of players.

Could it be that, in the end, Italian players will take their eye off the ball, distracted by the exasperated tones of the nationwide debate about the future of football? Or is it not more likely these are precisely the circumstances in which Italian footballers rise to the occasion?

We all remember how Italy and the Italian players went into the World Cup finals last year with the dark shadow of the squalid "calciopoli" match-fixing scandal hanging over their heads.

Yet, that very shame, that very disgrace, proved to be the best dressingroom team talk coach Marcello Lippi could have wanted.

As Lippi himself later conceded, he had no difficulty motivating a group determined to prove Italian football was about more than violence and corruption.

Could it be that last weekend's violence will prompt a vintage Italian performance in a game in which a draw will be enough to see the Azzurri qualify for next summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland?

Judged from some of the talk this week, Scotland can expect to meet a very determined Italy and one, by the way, wearing black armbands in memory of Sandri.

For example, the captain and world player of the year, Fabio Cannavaro of Real Madrid, had this to say: "If, like me, you are lucky enough to play your football in another country, you realise that we don't show a good version of either Italy or Italian football to the world. We have huge potential in this country but we don't realise it . . . I'm proud to be Italian but when I see certain things in the papers and on TV, well . . .

"Just today, one of our sports papers ( Gazzetta Dello Sport) claimed that perhaps the best foreigners in Italy will leave. True, if you have to choose where you are going to play, you might well avoid Italy because of the violence . . .

"It is not a nice wind that is blowing in our camp at the moment and we all know that we are now facing into the all-decisive game against Scotland. However, when we get to Coverciano, we manage to leave our problems outside. We proved that last year (prior to the World Cup). We now set off for Glasgow with our normal objective - to win."

Cannavaro did at least turn the focus of his thoughts to Scotland - eventually. But Donadoni was so worked up about the Sandri shooting he barely mentioned Scotland, McLeish or Miller when he met with the media early in the week.

"Enough, enough," he said. "We cannot forever be slaves and hostages. People can't take any more of this (violence). This is just pure madness.

"When you see young lads smashing a glass screen and then having themselves photographed in front of it, as if it were some kind of trophy, then you get an idea of just what today's values are all about. That's the real tragedy - the way our society is today."

One suspects Donadoni would have preferred to prepare for this game in very different circumstances. Yet, despite his obvious upset at recent events, he can be relied on to have his players thoroughly focused on the job in hand.

Thus far, the coach has done well. After all, he took over the Italian team at arguably the worst possible moment - just after they had won the World Cup. Marcello Lippi was always going to be a hard act to follow and you could argue that, post-Berlin, things could only get worse.

In football, it does not get any better than when you win the World Cup - from there on, it would have to be downhill.

Those dire predictions were soon fulfilled when Donadoni's side dropped four points in their opening two games, at home to Lithuania (1-1 draw) and away to France (1-3 defeat).

The post-Berlin blues of World Cup anti-climax had struck with a vengeance.

Since then, Donadoni has righted the ship. Six wins (including a 2-0 defeat of Scotland in Bari) and a home draw with France in their last seven outings have given Italy a real chance of qualifying. Moreover, Donadoni has come out from under the shadow of Lippi, partly by selecting his own new men such as the Udinese striker Fabio Quagliarella and partly by making do without as good a defender as Milan's Alessandro Nesta and as charismatic a figure as Roma's Francesco Totti, both of whom have "retired" from international football.

Even if many of the key figures in last year's World Cup triumph - Cannavaro in defence, Andrea Pirlo in midfield and Luca Toni in attack - are still there, this is a different team with its own sense of self. The point is not lost on Bayern Munich's Toni.

After he too had fielded 15 minutes worth of questions on football violence, he was greatly relieved on Wednesday afternoon when a Scottish colleague finally asked a question about today's game: "This one of those games that every player wants to play in . . . We know that if we get beaten, we're out.

"You ask me if next summer's finals will be devalued if the World Champions fail to qualify. Well, frankly, I'm not thinking that way, I want to play in the finals next year; we all do in this squad"

Would Italy be "nervous" playing at Hampden Park, another Scottish colleague wanted to know? The idea seemed a curious one to Toni:

"Nervous?

"We won't be nervous; we're the World Champions. We know what our responsibilities are.

"We know, too, that Scotland will be well prepared and that this is one of those games where two years' work hangs in the balance of 90 minutes . . . We started badly in this group but after that poor start we've done well, we've pulled together. Now we'll go there and play our game"

Nor does Toni offer much comfort to those Scots who hope the group's mathematics might induce crucial Italian tactical errors. After all, Italy could get it all wrong by just playing for a draw, could they not?

"No team goes into a game looking for just a draw, because that's the day that everything will go wrong on you," replies Toni.

Given the long established ability of Italian teams to pull out a 0-0 draw when it matters, there will be those who will want to take Toni's words with a large grain of salt. If ever a game looked set up for a 0-0 result, it is this afternoon's clash at Hampden.

All things considered, Scottish fans might do well to listen to Toni's overview of the game. Asked by your correspondent if the Sandri shooting might prove an important motivation for today's game, Toni replied almost defiantly: "Look, we don't need any special motivation.

"Many of the things that happened last weekend have nothing to do with football and we certainly didn't need events like this to motivate us . . ."

Even if the implication of Toni's words is that Italy were already well enough motivated for this game, fact is that after last weekend they are likely to be even more motivated.

That could be bad news for Scotland.

Roberto Donadoni

For Irish fans with a good memory, Roberto Donadoni is a familiar name. A skilled attacking midfielder with AC Milan, he was a key figure in the Azeglio Vicini-coached Italy that defeated Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland in that unforgettable quarter-final in Rome during the Italia 90 World Cup finals.

He was at the centre of the turning point in that game, hitting a fierce drive at goalkeeper Packie Bonner. The Ireland goalkeeper did well to stop it, but he parried it to the feet of a grateful Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci, who scored the killer goal.

Italy since the World Cup

The 17 months since Italy won the World Cup have been marked by more downs than ups for Italian soccer . . .

1 - September 2006: France take their revenge for defeat in the Berlin World Cup final when beating Italy 3-1 in a Euro 2008 qualifier in Paris.

2 - February 2007:Police inspector Filippo Raciti is killed during a full-scale riot in Catania, prior to the Catania v Palermo Sicilian derby.

3 - April 2007: Against all the odds, Uefa award the 2012 European Championship finals to Ukraine, ahead of the hot favourites, Italy.

4 - November 2007: Lazio supporter and disc jockey Gabriele Sandri is shot dead by a policeman in an autostrada service station.