FRANCE 98 – Match preview n°33
Italy need to show their killer instinct here on Tuesday, when they take on Austria in a crucial match for their World Cup campaign.
Victory will ensure they finish top of Group B and avoid Brazil in the second round. Anything less, and Cesare Maldini’s men risk either a tangle with the holders or even an early flight home on Wednesday morning.
The deciding factor will be whether Italy’s all-star attack led by World Cup hit-man Christian Vieri, the tournament’s joint top scorer, gets the right from support from the rest of the side. Italy have taken early leads in both their matches so far, but have failed to follow up with the killer blow of a second goal. Instead of moving forwards, their much criticised midfield has gone into reverse gear. As a result, they narrowly avoided defeat in a 2-2 draw with Chile and could easily have finished up drawing with Cameroon before a late double from Vieri finally sank the Africans 3-0.
The father and son team of coach Cesare and skipper Paolo Maldini have spent the past week telling the side that they just need to believe in themselves to go far in this tournament. Maldini snr warned them: ” We have to keep getting better. If we don’t, we’ll be going home, “ while his son added: ” If we play like we know we can play, then there’s no goal we can’t achieve. But to do great things, a team have to feel that they are a great team. “ If Italy can find that killer instinct at the Stade de France, they clearly have the players up front who can bury the unimpressive Austrians. Vieri said: ” I’m a striker and scoring goals is my job. And one thing is for sure, I’m not stopping at three goals. I’ve got to make the most of being on form. “
To lend support to Vieri up front, Maldini has the luxury of choosing between Alessandro Del Piero and his 31-year-old understudy Roberto Baggio. Still returning from a thigh injury, and facing a match which could well be played in sapping afternoon heat, Del Piero is unlikely to last 90 minutes. The choice is therefore between a repeat of the Cameroon plan-an hour for Baggio and half an hour for Del Piero-or vice versa. Del Piero wants to start on Tuesday and the coach, who has long tipped the Juventus striker as a star of the tournament, will probably agree.
With AS Roma’s Luigi Di Biagio having wrested Demetrio Albertini’s slot in central midfield, Maldini must decide whether to switch the AC Milan lynchpin to an unfamiliar position on the left, or give the role to a natural left midfielder like Chelsea’s Roberto Di Matteo.
Whatever he decides, the 66-year-old knows that Austria will not simply roll over and play dead. Having twice earned a 1-1 draw in the closing seconds, Herbert Prohaska’s side will not give up without a fight. Austria haven’t beaten Italy since 1960, well before any of the current teams were even born-including veteran ace Toni Polster, who is due to collect a record-breaking 95th cap.
” I don’t think that counts for very much, “ said Prohaska. ” But if Austria were to win, it would go down in our history, like the time we beat West Germany in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. “ He went on: ” We made a lot of mistakes against Chile and Cameroon. But we worked hard and kept running, and were able to sort things out in the end. “
The challenge facing Italy is to make sure Austria don’t get a chance to sort things out a third time.