Italy must win or it´s been a bad week, says Lippi

Italy coach Marcelo Lippi insisted on Tuesday that the world champions must beat Montenegro in Lecce on Wednesday or this will have been a bad week for the azzurri.

Italy battled to a 0-0 draw in Bulgaria on Saturday, dropping points in their World Cup qualifying Group Eight for the first time after two victories.

And the veteran coach, who this season returned to the job he left following World Cup success in Germany in 2006, said that a four-point haul from the international break would constitute a success but anything less would be a failure.

“We really want to win this match. If we win then the draw in Sofia will become a good result but if we don’t win then they will become two bad matches,” he said following training at the Stadio Via del Mare.

Italy have started their qualification campaign well in terms of results, even if their performances have been far from convincing.

They earned a highly fortunate 2-1 victory in Cyprus courtesy of a last minute winner from Antonio Di Natale before beating Georgia 2-0 at home.

But despite getting off to a good start against Georgia, Italy had to wait until the 89th minute before Daniele De Rossi’s second goal of the match finally killed off determined opponents.

Lippi said his team need to improve on that performance but can’t afford to take Montenegro lightly and he ruled out a more attacking gameplan than normal.

“You can’t allow yourselves to do that against anyone these days,” he said. “It’s a match we want to win and we have to do more than we did the last time out.

“Against Georgia we started well but then had problems later on.”

With seven points from three games Italy top the group and look to be heading for South Africa 2010 without too many problems.

And that despite Lippi making several changes to the team and squad that flopped so spectacularly in Austria and Switzerland at Euro 2008.

Lippi said all his players were fully fit and although he refused to comment on who would start, he did suggest that Villarreal forward Guiseppe Rossi would have a part to play following his substitute appearance against Bulgaria.

“I already played Rossi on Saturday but tomorrow (Wednesday) either from the beginning or during the second half, it’s very likely that he will play a part,” said Lippi.

Rossi’s reputation is rapidly growing as his career has taken off since leaving Manchester United and establishing himself as a first team regular, first on loan at Parma and now at Villarreal.

His call up to the senior Italy squad was something of a surprise but following his four goals at the Olympic Games and a record of close to a goal every two league games in his debut season in Spain last year, his star could yet be set to soar even more.