Juventus will backbone Italy's Euro 2012 bid, writes PADDY AGNEW
REPUBLIC OF Ireland beware, Giorgio Chiellini is ready for you. In the immediate aftermath of a historic “comeback” Serie A title win for Juventus last weekend, the club’s central defender Chiellini argues that Cesare Prandelli’s Italian team will arrive in Poland all the more motivated for the Euro 2012 Championships.
His reasoning is straight-forward enough. No Serie A side contributes more players to the new-look Italian squad than Juventus.
Even if Prandelli will not be naming his final squad until the end of the month, it is already clear the “Old Lady” of Italian football will be heavily represented – goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, defenders Andra Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Chiellini, midfielders Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Simone Pepe, as well as striker Alessandro Matri may all yet make the final cut.
“Prandelli makes the call but the fact that Juventus have such a strong Italian base to the team is important. Add three or four players and you have the national team, all ready to go,” Chiellini observed earlier this week.
“I’m always thinking about the European Championships. What is sure is that Juve’s title win will be a huge stimulus for Italy because we’ll have so many players who go to Poland on the back of this triumph.”
When pundits come to assess this Juventus title win, their first since the ignominy of the “Calciopoli” match-fixing scandal of 2006 and their subsequent relegation to Division Two, they will point to several key elements – new coach Antonio Conte, ex-AC Milan midfield genius Andrea Pirlo, the club’s brand new “Premiership-style” Juventus Stadium, the contribution of new boys, Swiss full-back Stefan Lichtsteiner and Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal and the Old Lady’s hunger to climb back to the top of Italian and European football.
All that is more than obvious but an essential item in this Juventus success is a very old-fashioned, traditional Italian virtue, namely a rock-solid defence. With the title won and with just one game to play, at home to Atalanta next Sunday, Juventus not only remain unbeaten this season but they have also conceded far fewer goals than any of their rivals (19 as opposed to 32 conceded by runners-up AC Milan). Throughout the season, Chiellini has been the dominant figure in this defence.
Not for nothing, 27-year-old Chiellini, along with Buffon and Pirlo, is one of the main planks in the platform of Prandelli’s new Italy. His combative nature, his physical strength and his 50-caps-worth of international experience make him a very tough cookie for any opposing striker.
When The Irish Times caught up with him a couple of weeks ago in Turin, he was sounding quietly confident. For a start, the first-round draw (Spain, Croatia and the Republic of Ireland) did not particularly worry him: “True, we have arguably our most difficult game right away. Spain is obviously the strongest side but we know all too well that Ireland are also awkward customers. Yet, sooner or later, you’re going to meet a team like Spain.
“The reality of the European Championships is that the difference between elimination and qualification for the next round can be razor thin.”
So then, what does he think of Trap’s Ireland, given that good old Trap has picked up two draws and one win in three games against his native country?
That question prompts a huge grin and a whole variety of superstitious gestures: “I just hope we can put a halt to Trap’s gallop . . . but he remains a legend of Italian soccer. Destiny is strange . . . Of course, we didn’t want to meet him.
“We’ve lots of respect for Trap and for his team . . . while it’s obviously very special for him to play against Italy . . . The fact is that we would have been supporting him and Ireland like mad, if only they were playing in another group.”
Chiellini has a lot of respect for players like Shay Given, John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Aiden McGeady and especially for Robbie Keane. Looking at the Irish side, he concludes grimly “basically this is mainly the team that gave us so much bother in the qualifications for the 2010 World Cup”.
So, will Ireland give them bother this time too? “With Trap in charge, you can bet on it,” he grimaces. “Ireland and Trap have nothing to lose and all to gain, they have already done much better than anyone expected by qualifying for Poland, anything else is just a bonus,” he says.
Even if the four-times World Cup winners do not start on the front row of the Euro grid – “Spain, Holland and Germany are ahead of us” – there is still huge pressure on Italy. Whatever else, says Chiellini, there is no risk of us underestimating Ireland and Trap. “We’re ready for them,” he concludes.
