Voeller: Beware of Pirlo

Germany legend Rudi Voeller says his country need to be mindful of Italy star Andrea Pirlo in their Euro 2012 semi-final on Thursday.

The Bayer Leverkusen director believes the influential midfielder plays a key role for Italy and has advised Joachim Loew to isolate the Juventus star to increase their chances of reaching the final.

“(Cesare Prandelli) gives him all the freedom he needs and he makes perfect use of it,” Voller told Kicker.

“He plays either in front of the defence as a deep-lying playmaker, but can also feature closer to the strikers. Pirlo has shown that he is of added value all over the pitch.

“It would definitely be a good idea to try to isolate him. I had the feeling that he had like 500 touches against England rather than the 150 he actually had. And then that fantastic penalty.

“Italy are not a team that parks the bus or plays Catenaccio. Prandelli plays with two strikers, because he doesn’t want to bench one of them. And then he has a class forward like (Antonio) Di Natale ready to come from the bench.”