In Montpellier the Italian beat swelled into a discernible rhythm last night. Three goals, three points and a breezy dismissal of a robust Cameroon side told the story of a team just lacing up their dancing shoes.

Toe-tapping stuff in parts. The other Group B game ended in a draw earlier in the day, so the match was pregnant with promise and Italy made it clear early on that they wanted to spare themselves unnecessary stress in their final group match. Christian Vieri chugged through and looped a toe-poked effort over the head of Jacques Songo'o after three minutes. Just wide but it jerked you awake.

It took just six minutes of panning for them to sift a nugget, however. Roberto Baggio, infused with a new confidence since wiping the slate of history clean with a converted penalty in the opening game, swung across a judicious free. Luigi Di Biagio rose and got a meaty header to it. Cue the celebrations. And the Italians got wound up for their party trick: defending.

Woody Allen once said that the sweetest words in the English language are "it's benign." At the other end of the spectrum are the words of doom: "Italy took an early lead."

What follows is almost always malignant. With an early lead in the safe the Italians require a change of government at home before they are allowed into opposition territory again.

"We became hesitant," said manager Cesare Maldini afterwards. "Disjointed. A replication of our previous game (against Chile)."

Although it enfeebled the game for more than an hour subsequently, it was easy to sympathise with the Italian midfield's rootedness. Some of the Cameroon tackling was, to borrow a patronising phrase beloved of English commentators, "enthusiastic."

Pierre Wome and Pierre Njanka got booked within the first 20 minutes for spectacularly uninhibited challenges and just four minutes before half-time Raymond Kalla took the long walk after a high tackle which left Di Biagio crumpled. A team of doctors using metal detectors searched Di Biagio's thigh for the missing studs during half-time.

With 11 men on the field Cameroon had been finding it tough enough to string together passes. With just 10 the distribution became even more random. To make up, though, they were more insistently muscular in midfield, hustling the Italians out of their game for a while.

"We succeeded in annoying the Italians," said Cameroon manager Claude Le Roy afterwards with a little smile.

That tendency to annoy became more pronounced in the early parts of the second period when a half-time contemplation of the starkness of their position induced some extreme urgency to the Cameroon play. Wome torpedoed a free kick right across the face of the Italian goal and soon afterwards Joseph-Desire Job had a crack from 20 yards. A spring-heeled save from Gianluca Pagliuca was Job's lot, however.

The Italian defence responded to recent complaints from the management however and their act was considerably tidier than it had been against Chile while in midfield Dino Baggio's stature grew with the game.

Cameroon may have been pushier but Italy's thoughtful counterattacking stabbed like a stiletto. To that effect Cesare Maldini withdrew the threat to drive a stake through the heart of Alessandro Del Piero's endorsement deals and at last introduced the boyish wonder midway through the second half.

Del Piero was replotting the line of his pencil-thin beard, however, when Italy schemed up their second goal 15 minutes from time. Di Biagio threaded through to Francesco Moriero who located Christian Vieri chuntering through on the outside. Clever pass, perceptive touch for a big man and the ball was spinning over Songo'o and into the Cameroon net.

Vieri's all-round performance was much more level than that which he submitted against Chile and with better than a goal a game to his name now he is beginning to outshine his more lithe, more celebrated colleagues.

Not that Del Piero didn't keep the customer satisfied. He was set up by the ever-industrious Dino Baggio on 80 minutes and issued a sublime little chip which forced Songo'o into a panicky back-pedalling save.

Italy finished the game as they started it. If urgency had made them fluent in the early passages, comfort set them playing late on.

They closed with a flourish. Angelo Di Livio, a late substitute, plotted a 40-yard pass down the left wing into the path of del Piero whose spin didn't quite come off. He kept arguing the issue, however, with two defenders until the ball bounced off Wome's chest and clear to Vieri, the bouncer turned assassin. Cold finish. 3-0.

It was all a little uncharacteristic. Italy generally have to jumpstart their World Cup campaigns with panic at some stage. A 3-0 brushing aside of respectable opposition is a surprise but a statement in itself.

The result leaves them with a margin of comfort for their final group game against Austria. A draw should usher them into the next phase in first place barring Chile putting a hatful past Cameroon.

The loaded barrel is spinning for whoever comes second in the group however with a confident Brazilian side waiting in the last 16.