Prandelli urges Italy improvement

Italy may have edged closer to Euro 2012 with victory in the Faroe Islands, but coach Cesare Prandelli wants to see more from his team.

An 11th-minute strike from Antonio Cassano helped Italy secure a 1-0 win over the Faroe Islands on Friday.

They are now seven points clear at the top of Group C, with three matches remaining.

But the unconvincing nature of the win in Torshavn has been causing Prandelli some restless nights.

“We definitely wanted to play much better,” he said.

“I didn’t sleep much so I watched it again and I have to say that at the beginning it seemed an easy game.”

“But when you lose focus, as we did, you begin to lose organisation and there was a lot of disorder on the pitch.”

Another win against Slovenia on Tuesday will secure a place for Italy at next year’s finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Prandelli said he will not be making wholesale changes for the match in Florence, but urged the players to make the most of their second chance.

“We have a bit of experience now and when you get into the penalty area so much and so easily, you need to score,” he said.

“If we had scored more, our comment on the game would have been different, but it didn’t happen, so it’s right to wonder why we did not do it.”

Italy are unbeaten in their qualification campaign with six wins and one draw from seven matches played.

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli, named as a substitute for the Faroe Islands match, risked incurring the wrath of Prandelli by taking a tablet computer onto the bench at the Torsvollor Stadium.

Italy team manager Gigi Riva played down the incident, which is the latest in Balotelli’s extensive catalogue of unusual behaviour.

“Balotelli’s situation is nothing to worry about,” Riva said.

“These are small things that happen in every team.”

“He only played a few minutes against the Faroe Islands so he couldn’t do much. But in every training (session), Mario gives his best.”