Fiorentina and Italy legend Giancarlo Antognoni praised Riccardo Montolivo as “my heir to the Number 10 shirt.”
Viola midfielder Montolivo is set to start this evening in the Azzurri's World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria, making the definitive step up from Under-21 level.
“On the one side I am disappointed to lose my record, having been the last Fiorentina player to wear the Number 10 shirt for Italy,” Antognoni told the Gazzetta dello Sport.
“But I am happy for Montolivo. He is a lad who deserves the success he is having and I am convinced that if he steps on to the field, he will be able to do himself proud.”
Marcello Lippi has not yet named his starting XI in Sofia, but Montolivo is expected to start instead of Roma's Simone Perrotta.
The 23-year-old has only one previous senior cap, in a 2-0 friendly win over South Africa on October 17, 2007.
Antognoni is a legend in the Italian game and in particular for Fiorentina, who he represented from 1972 to 1987.
He was in the 1982 World Cup winning squad and collected 73 caps, the last in a 2-0 defeat away to Czechoslovakia on November 16, 1983
The pressure is on Pierluigi Casiraghi as Italy's Under-21 European Championship hopes hang in the balance.
“We had a decent game. Not great, but we created some chances and didn't put them in the back of the net,” he said after the 0-0 draw with Israel in Ancona this afternoon.
The Azzurrini must now decide the play-off in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, but are going to be without the suspended Sebastian Giovinco, Claudio Marchisio and Daniele Dessena.
“Obviously in a play-off the match lasts 180 minutes, so we will go out there and aim to qualify, as we did in the last edition.
“We did what we had to do, although not terribly well in the latter stages of the first half. We ran no risks whatsoever and did everything except score a goal.”
On top of those bans, Mario Balotelli has a flu virus, Paolo De Ceglie sprained his ankle and Marco Andreolli was stretchered off with a deep cut to his cheekbone.
“Unfortunately we will be missing many first choice players, so we'll see if at least Balotelli can recover. If not, then we'll still have 11 men on the field.”
卡西拉吉感到压力
在一场势均力敌的U21欧洲冠军赛后，卡西拉吉感受到了来自各方的压力。
“这场比赛我们表现尚可，说不上很好，但我们创造出了许多机会并且没有失球。”今天下午在安科纳0：0战平以色列的赛后卡西拉吉如是说。
意大利的球队要开始准备下周在特拉维夫的比赛了，但届时很可能看不到乔文科，马尔基西奥和德塞纳的身影了。
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发表于 2008-10-12 02:32:22
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