Buffon wary of Slovenia threat

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has warned his team mates that Friday’s Euro 2012 Group C qualifier against Slovenia will not be easy.

Slovenia sit second in the group after four matches, three points behind leaders Italy. They qualified for the 2010 World Cup and only a narrow 1-0 defeat to England in their final group game, coupled with a last-gasp win for the USA against Algeria, prevented them going through to the knock-out stages. And Buffon said Italy do not consider themselves favourites heading into the match.”Neither team can be deemed as the favourite,” Buffon said. “This is particularly true when playing against emerging nations such as Slovenia, who have some players with great individual skills coming through.””We should try to play intelligently and do everything we can to win and qualify for Euro 2012 as soon as possible.”Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli and Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi were both left out of coach Cesare Prandelli’s squad for the match and Tuesday’s friendly against Ukraine in Kiev for disciplinary reasons, having been sent off recently for their clubs for violent conduct. Much has changed in the Italian national team set-up since a disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign saw them knocked out in the first round after failing to win a match.Italy have lost just one match since the World Cup – a 1-0 friendly defeat to the Ivory Coast – and Buffon said most of the credit for the revival should go to Prandelli.”Well, the best signing has been the coach Cesare Prandelli,” Buffon said. “He is suitable for the kind of team we are which is a young team with strong ambitions.””Mario Balotelli won’t be playing. Antonio Cassano, Giuseppe Rossi have very good skills. In all roles there are skilled players, such as De Rossi, Pirlo – as soon as he’s available – Thiago Motta, Montolivo, (Giorgio) Chiellini, (Leonardo) Bonucci.””There are many players able to make this team a very good and important team, if there are the right conditions.”