Italy v Sweden - PREVIEW
Totti-less Italy face confident Swedes
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| Denmark's midfielder Christian Poulsen (R) argue with Italy's forward Francesco Totti, 14 June 2004 at Henriques stadium in Guimaraes, for their Euro 2004 group C football match at the European Nations championship in Portugal. AFP PHOTO Aris MESSINIS |
Italy will be without their talismanic striker Francesco Totti for Friday's crunch Group C tie against free-scoring Sweden on Friday.
European football's governing body UEFA on Thursday suspended the 27-year-old striker for three matches for spitting at Danish opponent Christian Poulsen in their Group C opener.
The loss of Totti is a major blow to Italy who desperately need to beat the Swedes to keep alive their chances of reaching the quarter-finals.
Italy were tactically outsmarted by the Danes, but striker Christian Vieri has backed coach Giovanni Trapattoni to turn their fortunes around after a slow start and dismissed newspaper reports of unrest in the camp.
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| Italy's midfielder Gennaro Gattuso (L) is tackled by Denmark's defender Thomas Helveg, 14 June 2004 at Henriques stadium in Guimaraes, for their Euro 2004 groupe C football match at the European Nations championship in Portugal. AFP PHOTO Sven NACKSTRAND |
"There has been no uprising against the coach and no arguments between the players," said the Inter Milan forward.
"We talk and that is normal, but Trapattoni always has the last word and he hasn't lost his grip on the squad."
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| Sweden's Erik Edman is pictured during the international friendly football match against Portugal at Coimbra Stadium, central Portugal, 28 April 2004. AFP Photo / Miguel RIOPA |
Totti's place is expected to go to AC Milan playmaker Andrea Pirlo, while midfielder Gennaro Gattuso could get the nod over Cristiano Zanetti having replaced him in Monday's match.
Sweden's Erik Edman, whose inch-perfect cross set Henrik Larsson up for his first goal against Bulgaria, said the Scandinavians were quietly confident about beating the unpredictable Italians.
"We try to be as relaxed as possible and it's true that our 5-0 victory in our first match has really boosted our self-belief," he said.
Teams
Italy
Gianluigi Buffon; Christian Panucci, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro (capt), Gianluca Zambrotta; Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Simone Perrotta; Antonio Cassano, Alessandro Del Piero, Christian Vieri
Coach: Giovanni Trapattoni
Sweden
Andreas Isaksson; Mikael Nilsson, Olof Mellberg (capt), Andreas Jakobsson, Erik Edman; Christian Wilhelmsson, Tobias Linderoth, Anders Svensson, Fredrik Ljungberg; Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Coaches: Lars Lagerbaek, Tommy Soderberg
Referee: Urs Meier (Swi)