Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said that the night before the match against Croatia in Poznan that he still has one doubt about who will be in his starting line-up.
By all indications, Prandelli is deciding who will partner Mario Balotelli up-front with the expectation that it will be Di Natale. De Rossi will play again in defence and the rest of the team that played so well in their opening match against Spain will start against Croatia.
“I will make my mind up at the last minute with regard to the starting line-up” said Peandelli. I want to have the right feeling and I don’t want to give an advantage to anybody, but I am thinking about changes. How many? I have just one idea with regard to changes (compared to the match against Spain). We are very proud when we manage to play football, when we manage to play it at the same level as our opponents, as we did against Spain. We are a good team. De Rossi can be an added value for us in addition to the precise idea we have of how we should play. We have trained well for this match. Bilic has said that Modric is a better player than Pirlo? First he has to win something important. Cassano’s comments (on gays)? We make sure we have everything. But let’s talk about this another day, not before such a match”.
When asked about Croatia, Prandelli responded:
“They are a well-organised team. They always try to use the full width of the pitch and use the long ball. They change their formation even while they are playing. They have a lot of quality. And then they also play with great intensity. They are really difficult to stop from a physical point of view. They are very quick. The match will not be easy, but I think we have the qualities to beat them, to win the match. We must try and play our game instead of trying to stop our opponents, as we did against Spain. I think it will be a very evenly balanced match at times and we will have to keep our concentration for the whole 90 minutes”.
