Lippi gets lippy with the press gang

ONE SUSPECTS that Italian football team coach Marcello Lippi has never heard of Willie John McBride. Yet as he began preparations yesterday at the Italian Federation training centre of Coverciano, Florence, for Italy’s World Cup qualifier with the Republic of Ireland at Croke Park next Saturday, Lippi appeared to take a leaf out of McBride’s book, at least with regard to the media.

Rugby great McBride is famous for having advised his Lions team-mates on a tour of South Africa to “get their retaliation in first”. With regard to the media, Lippi did just that yesterday. Knowing all too well that the Italian hacks were poised and ready to ask him “awkward” questions about matters such as why he continues not to use Sampdoria striker Antonio Cassano or whether he will pick Juventus’s Brazilian striker Amauri, Lippi opened up his press briefing yesterday with an emphatic “no comment”.

Speaking of the tedium of being consistently asked the same questions by the sports hacks, Lippi said: “I am really fed up with you lot.”

Even the thickest-skinned hack could conclude that this was not the day for “difficult” questions. Worse still, it soon became very obvious that the Italian coach was going to play it very tight, offering no hints about his line-up for Saturday’s game. Even a question about his predecessor, Roberto Donadoni, sacked yesterday by Serie A club Napoli, prompted only a cautious expression of “regret” and “solidarity” for a colleague.

So it was up to The Irish Times to ask a question to which he replied with alacrity and enthusiasm. Namely, what had his opposite number, Giovanni Trapattoni, done for Irish football?

“He has brought a serious organisational capacity to Ireland and he has made them into a real team. He has also done a lot for their self-belief, making them capable of providing serious opposition for any side.”

If that sounds like a coach not counting his World Cup qualification chickens until they have hatched, then that is exactly what the man intended. Asked again by your correspondent if the fact his side travel to Croke Park with Group Eight victory seemingly certain might not prompt a dangerous mental relaxation, Lippi responded: “Absolutely not. Obviously it’s a huge advantage to go into this game with a four-point lead but we realise only too well we’ve still got it all to do. This game is very, very important. The team has got to play the way it knows how, trying to win the game even if they know only too well that a draw could be good enough.”

Just to underline the point, the Italian coach refused to consider the possibility of making experiments in Italy’s final group game, in Parma against Cyprus next Wednesday. The implication from the floor was that, having dispatched Ireland next Saturday, Italy could name any number of under-used squad members for a final game that would be meaningless.

“No, no, one game at a time. The age of David and Goliath in football has gone. There are no Davids and Goliaths anymore, every team is well prepared and organised, all the more so if it is coached by Trap . . . We need just a point on Saturday and if we’re not good to do it then, well we still have a chance of picking up three next Wednesday and then the job is done.”

Even if Lippi was giving nothing away about his team formation, it seems more than likely he will start at Croke Park with very much the team which was so impressive in a 2-0 win against Bulgaria in Turin last month. Captain Fabio Cannavaro, ruled out by suspension, will probably be replaced by Fiorentina’s Alessandro Gamberini in a side that is likely to be stuffed with World Cup winners such as Gigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Grosso, Andrea Pirlo, Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi and Vicenzo Iaquinta.