Prandelli wary of wounded Serbia

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli believes Serbia’s shock 3-1 home defeat to Estonia will work against his team when they face the Serbs in Genoa on Tuesday.

Italy dropped their first Group C points on Friday when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Northern Ireland in Belfast.

But they remain top of the group on seven points from three matches due to Serbia’s shock defeat, with Estonia now second and just a point behind the Azzurri.

Serbia were expected to be Italy’s closest competition in the group and Prandelli believes their setback will only make them tougher to defeat in Genoa.

But the coach also said the results so far show that no-one can be discounted in this pool.

“Estonia were described as a team of semi-amateurs but it’s not the case,” said Prandelli.

“It’s a very balanced group and there will be more surprises, such as Estonia’s in Serbia.

“I would have preferred not to play a wounded Serbia, their defeat will complicate things.”

Something else that is troubling Italy is their profligacy in front of goal. Against the Irish they created many chances but failed to score.

While the Italian media has blamed that failure on a lack of quality strikers, Prandelli does not agree, even though he has used four different centre-forwards in his four games in charge.

“We need to understand which centre-forward is most suitable to play against each opponent in each match,” said the coach. “We don’t have a centre-forward problem.

“As for the missed chances, sometimes forwards think they’ve already scored (when the chance arrives) but in these instances you need concentration and you need to be clinical.”