Prandelli happy to have found balance

Italy 2 Ireland 0

Cesare Prandelli switched back to his preferred 4-4-2 formation in Monday's 2-0 Euro 2012 Group C defeat of Ireland, which saw it through to the quarterfinals, and then proclaimed himself happy with the team's balance in midfield.

Having played a 3-5-2 system in his previous two games, Prandelli went back to a diamond midfield and was much happier than he had been following Italy's first two group games.

He wouldn't commit on which one will provide the way forward during the rest of the European Championship, but he did give a healthy hint.

"We have to try to understand many things, but I was happy with the line of four, they did really well," he said.

"We got our confidence back, but also the balance this midfield gave us. We must interpret the next game as we did this one.

"The quality always shows itself during the game but if we don't play with spirit and heart, it's difficult to win games."

Although he started with a 4-4-2, Prandelli switched to a five-man midfield with just one player up top after an hour.

And he said that was necessary to combat Ireland's direct style.

"We played a very aggressive team which pushed up high so we needed the extra man in midfield," said the coach.

"We couldn't play ping-pong because we've got different characteristics.

"It was a particular game, we gave ourselves a signal and that's important. We played in a way that we could put pressure on the long balls and we passed well."

In its previous two matches, 1-1 draws against Spain and Croatia, Italy had suffered a drop in physical condition in the last 20 minutes but Prandelli insisted it was over that now.

"We didn't have a dip in physical condition, they played long balls and we didn't have time to have a dip," he said.

"We stayed in the game to the end. There was even a seven or eight-minute period where we had three great chances to kill the game."

Prandelli was particularly keen to pay tribute to countryman Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland for its fighting spirit, but also for the behavior of its fans.

Italy's national anthem had been jeered by Spanish and Croatian fans, but the Irish clapped along to the beat, which Prandelli found spine-tingling.

"During the game they tried everything to get back into it to get some points," he said.

"They tried to equalize and even to win and this is the spirit of Trapattoni.

"I'm happy to have played a serious team. I've never had such a strong feeling during the national anthem, they have fantastic fans."

Antonio Cassano opened the scoring on 35 minutes with a flicked header from an Andrea Pirlo corner and Mario Balotelli netted the clincher late despite John O'Shea's seeming attempts to swap shirts before the final whistle.

(China Daily 06/20/2012 page24)