Italy – P. Maldini: “We need a player like Del Piero”

Comments from the Senlis leisure centre (north of PARIS), the training centre for the ITALY team.

Paolo MALDINI , captain (3):

“I am now thirty years old and I am playing in my third world cup. I’ve played at home and abroad with the ITALY team. As a result, I know that playing a World Cup in your own country is not necessarily an advantage: in 1990 we lost the semi-final to ARGENTINA on penalties (ARGENTINA-ITALY 1-1, 4-3), even though we were on home ground and with a public who were behind us in an extraordinary way. The fans are very important because they can really encourage their team, but they still cannot score goals. I think that the coach is giving all the strikers the chance to show what they can do, and the criticisms which have been aimed at him for doing so are unfair. ITALY needs a player like DEL PIERO (10), whose fitness can only improve in the next few matches. ITALY has very strong options up-front alongside VIERI (21), such as Roberto BAGGIO (18), INZAGHI (19) and CHIESA (23), and it is only fair to give everyone the chance to make the team. As far as the match against FRANCE is concerned (match No. 57, Friday 3 July at 16h30, at the Stade de France in SAINT-DENIS), our preparations are going very well. We are aware that the FRANCE team may very well play ZIDANE (10) from the kick-off. He is a great player who we know very well, as he plays in ITALY for Juventus in Turin. It is still to be decided which defender will be given the responsibility of marking ZIDANE, but we have the players necessary for the job: Dino BAGGIO, especially, is a very versatile midfielder, and knew precisely how to mark ESTAY (20) in the CHILE team’s midfield, who is also a very good player.”