Italy failed to find form once again after they could only manage a 0-0 draw with Republic of Ireland. Italy came into the match as the overwhelming favourites, decided by a poor run of form. They continued their poor form after failing to win any of the last five matches. Apart from the poor result, manager Caesar Prandelli also had to witness one of his important players – Ricardo Montolivo – suffer an injury that will rule him out of the World Cup 2014. After the match, Prandelli was shocked to say anything about what he had just witnessed.

The poor preparation for the World Cup 2014 has put the national team’s hopes in major jeopardy. Given that they will be coming up against top teams like England and Uruguay in the group stages, Italy need to recover form as soon as possible. The match against minnows Luxembourg provides a great opportunity, but this will also be the final pretournament friendly match for the team before they get into the World Cup. The first match of the tournament will be against England and it will be followed by matches against Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Prandelli admitted that the injury suffered by Montolivo is very serious and he will definitely miss the World Cup despite being included in the final 23 man squad. “Unfortunately the match was blighted by injuries. We have been dealt a strong blow. For Riccardo unfortunately it’s something serious. This evening it’s difficult to give a technical assessment of the performance. At the end of the first half it was difficult to talk about the match considering the injuries to Montolivo and Aquilani. Rossi? We’ll assess his recovery, then we’ll reflect on things. Darmian made a very good debut,” said the manager.

Italy failed to do well at recent major tournaments.

Cesare Prandelli has stunned everyone by stating that he would not take any of the players from the England national team into the Italian national team. England are considered as one of the top teams in world football, but they have been unable to win a major trophy since 1966. They will go into the upcoming World Cup 2014 with aspirations of reaching the quarter-finals only. This is because they come up against former world champions Italy and Uruguay in the group stage.

Italy come into the tournament as one of the favourites to win the title after having reached the Euro 2012 final only two years ago. Prandelli has managed to assemble a great looking Italian team that has the right mixture of youth and experience. He has been receiving a lot of plaudits for his work in the last few years. He reckons that the Italian team is now so strong that he will not consider taking any player from the England team. He also says that he has complete faith in the players from Italy.

Despite such statements, Prandelli acknowledged that England manager Roy Hodgson has definitely found some interesting players for the national team. Hodgson is expected to announce a youthful looking squad for the World Cup.

“Hodgson has found some very interesting players. In particular when you consider them from a physical perspective. They are very technical and resistant. They are a very, very strong team. They have some interesting young players. Until around a year ago no one thought they would be able to make an impression in the Premier League. But I wouldn’t take anyone to have instead of my own players. We are a good team too,” said Prandelli.
Prandelli has refused to talk about his future with his contract coming to an end.