Hard to stay awake as cautious Italians keep dreams alive

Group B/Italy 0 France 0:In the end, it was more Machiavelli versus Richelieu than a rerun of last year's World Cup final in Berlin. After all the pre-match polemics about cheating Eye-Ties and other matters, Italy v France turned out to be a dull affair in which pragmatism triumphed over adventure.

The story of this encounter is not complex. France came to the San Siro on Saturday looking for a draw that would confirm their position on top of Group B and they were good enough to get it.

Italy, on the other hand, had gone into the game looking for a win that would catapult them to the top of the table and they were simply not good enough.

With four qualifiers still to play, World champions Italy find themselves in third place, two points behind France and one behind Scotland. Their remaining two away games, against Ukraine on Wednesday and Scotland in November, may hold the key to this group.

In the meantime, of course, France could do the Italians a major favour by beating Scotland in Paris on Wednesday.

It was a night that, for Italy, began well only to quickly deteriorate. The mighty San Siro paid an emotional tribute to great Luciano Pavarotti, who died last Thursday when his rendition of Nessun Dorma rang out over the stadium.

The San Siro faithful, however, soon dirtied their bibs - a section of the crowd whistling throughout the playing of the French anthem, the La Marseillaise. If those whistling fans thought to intimidate France, though, they had got it wrong.

Despite missing three key players in defenders William Gallas and Willy Sagnol and in goalkeeper Gregory Coupet, the French opened up with confidence, looking strong and unfazed by a surprisingly timid Italy.

The banned French coach Raymond Domenech might have been forced to watch from the stands, but his side showed no signs of missing him, playing an organised, self-confident game in which they had as much if not more possession than Italy.

For the world champions, midfielders Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi were so preoccupied with conceding no space to the French front pairing of Thierry Henry and Nicola Anelka that they failed to provide any real support to the veteran Pippo Inzaghi, who soon found himself almost totally isolated in his Lone Ranger role up front.

Likewise, Alessandro Del Piero made little impact down the French left, since he was clearly under orders to keep a close eye on Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery.

Fortunately for Italy, neither Anelka nor Henry appeared to play to his best, making little of a number of promising situations in the opening half hour.

In the 34th minute, however, it was the old man Inzaghi who signalled an Italian mini-revival, striking a curious, angled shot that hit the bar.

Just before half-time, however, Italy's worst fears about the potentially dangerous French attack were confirmed when Ribery, receiving from a throw-in in the 42nd minute, turned cleverly on the edge of the Italian area and danced his way past two defenders only to shoot wide from a favourable position.

One minute later, midfielder Florent Maladou underlined the point when hitting a powerful shot from just outside the area that might have caused problems for a goalkeeper less expert than Gigi Buffon.

If Italy's line-up had looked suspiciously like a 4-5-1 for much of the first half, those two pre-half-time chances for France only confirmed Italian caution.

Although defender Andrea Barzagli got up for a good header from a 49th-minute corner and midfielder Mauro Camoranesi prompted an excellent tip over the bar from the French goalkeeper Mickael Landreau one minute later, Italy huffed and puffed, but rarely threatened for the rest of the game.

Long before the final whistle, it was clear that Italy were not going to win. Not only were the world champions too cautious, but as the game went on the superior fitness of the French became all too manifest.

Despite the 0-0 result, however, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni was far from crestfallen, saying afterwards.

"We battled hard and were as good as them. We had our chances to win the game, even if we were too cautious in the opening 20, 25 minutes . . . "

Asked if he felt his side now had no option but to win away from home against Ukraine on Wednesday, Donadoni replied: "We're forced to win every game, including this one (against France). You play to win and you wait to see what happens."

ITALY: Buffon, Oddo, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Zambrotta, De Rossi, Gattuso, Pirlo, Camoranesi (Perrotta 58), Del Piero (Di Natale 83), Inzaghi (Lucarelli 65). Subs not used: Amelia, Panucci, Grosso, Ambrosini. Booked: Gattuso.

FRANCE: Landreau, Lassana Diarra, Thuram, Escude, Abidal, Ribery (Toulalan 86), Makelele, Vieira, Malouda, Henry, Anelka. Subs not used: Frey, Evra, Govou, Clerc, Mexes, Trezeguet.Booked: Makelele, Henry.

Referee: L Michel (Slovakia).