Lippi, whose side face Ukraine in a further friendly on Friday, was unhappy at the uncompromising physical approach shown by the Italians' fellow World Cup qualifiers in Wednesday's game.

The silver-haired guru, already deprived of Alessandro Nesta and Gianluca Zambrotta, said he had been forced to change half his team during the second half because of Switzerland's tactics.

"We came for a friendly, but we came across a team that was aiming for a little more than that," he explained.

"We suffered from so many incidents that I was forced to make substitutions that I hadn't planned."

However, Switzerland -- who, unlike Italy, can hardly lay claim to being one of the favourites in Germany -- made just as many changes from a starting line-up that was also weakened.

The Azzurri also clocked up two yellow cards to a single Swiss one.

While the former Juventus coach was justifiably satisfied with his side's tight-knit and sometimes five-strong defence, Switzerland fielded only a single striker throughout the game, Alexander Frei.

Frei candidly admitted afterwards that he was out of shape.

Italy can expect a tougher challenge from Ukraine's veteran Sergei Rebrov and possibly Chelsea-bound Andrei Shevchenko, if he is fit enough to play on Friday.

Lippi's complaint about Swiss vigour also proved to be something of a backhanded compliment for Arsenal duo Philippe Senderos and especially 19 year-old Johan Djourou on only his second international.

Djourou, still a reserve for his club, was sweeping balls off opponents with the confidence of an Italian veteran.

Italy, meanwhile, only created a single scoring chance in the first half, for their only goal, and that was helped on by a glaring defensive error.

The Azzurri's tense midfield seemed to struggle to shrug off training rituals.

Apart from flashes of sharpness up front in the second half, Lippi only had two clear causes for satisfaction.

One was that, with a few days in Switzerland, the squad have a chance to put some distance between themselves and the match fixing scandal at home.

The other was Francesco Totti. Playing his first international since he broke his ankle in February, the Roma star gingerly confronted Djourou and Senderos.

But once he dropped deeper into midfield, Totti was threading potentially match winning passes through to the penalty area.

"He grew as the minutes went by - he started off rather unsteadily. But he played better in the second half ," Lippi observed.

Ukraine head into the friendly against Italy with a decisive 4-0 victory against Costa Rica under their belt.

Injuries have forced coach Oleg Blokhin to replace several key players.

But the Italians may find in their last warm-up before Germany that the Ukranian substitutes from the under-21 side are just as eager to prove their worth as the Swiss youngsters.