Losing to New Zealand unthinkable: De Rossi

Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi described the possibility of defeat to New Zealand on Sunday as unthinkable.

Italy tackle the All Whites in their second Group F game and will be widely expected to win comfortably, despite the troubles they had in beating the Kiwis 4-3 in a pre-Confederations Cup friendly last year.

And the combative AS Roma midfielder said that to understand what a defeat would mean for Italy one needs only imagine a reverse scenario in rugby.

“Losing to New Zealand would probably mean risking elimination, as has happened with France,” he said.

“We’d have a drastic position in the standings. It would be as serious as if New Zealand failed to get out the group stages at the Rugby World Cup.”

Although De Rossi is known for getting stuck in, he said he doesn’t want Sunday’s game to become a purely physical battle.

“I like the manly game but I also like playing the ball around. But I don’t like it when the game gets too physical, not because I’m afraid but because I like the beautiful game.

“But I haven’t seen any really physical battles in the World Cup, they’ve all been good games and I think this one will be similar to the Paraguay game.”

However the match goes, this is one that De Rossi admits Italy simply cannot afford not to win.

“There are teams that we should beat, we’re better. We need to play our game and of course be careful,” he said.

“They have big players so we won’t be playing the ball in the air. But we’re Italy and we should win.

“Not getting out of the group would be an absolute failure, it would also be a failure to not get past the second round.

“But when you get to the quarter-finals there are teams such as Brazil, Argentina, Spain and England, that’s when little things can make the difference.”

There has been a lot of talk in the Italian press about the lack of a superstar in the Italy team, or even a player like Paolo Rossi, who in 1982 suddenly exploded into life with a hat-trick against Brazil and went on to win the Golden Boot.

But De Rossi says it is not a problem to be without such a player.

“It’s early doors because Paolo Rossi also took his time to get going before scoring six goals,” he said.

“We’ve got forwards who’ve done a lot for many years and they’re doing well.

“But at the last World Cup (in 2006) we won without a Paolo Rossi, we won and no-one complained.”