In the past month, Italy have beaten England, drawn with Luxembourg and lost to Costa Rica. Perhaps the last of those is the greatest surprise, simply because few saw Costa Rica’s charge coming. Perhaps all three results are quintessentially Italian.
Part of the enduring fascination with Italy lies in their unpredictability. Their results in friendlies can be famously variable, so being held by Luxembourg, embarrassing as it appeared, may not mean much. The Italian mentality means minds are concentrated rather more when something is at stake.
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They are a tournament team who can begin tournaments slowly. Italy scarcely impressed in the initial group stage in either 1982 or 1994, yet recovered to reach the final both times. They struggled at the start in 2010, did not improve and exited the World Cup ignominiously. The class of 2014 could yet be bracketed with the recent greats or the country’s great underachievers.
Italy being Italy, it is hard to say. They need only a point against Uruguay to progress to the last-16 – and, historically, few teams were better equipped to play for a point than the Azzurri. But it is a question which Italy shows up: the tactically astute, cleverly configured group who overcame England or the uninspired, uninventive outfit deservedly defeated by Costa Rica?
That schizophrenia is embodied by Mario Balotelli, match-winner one game and wasteful the next. Antonio Candreva flourished against England and floundered against Costa Rica. Matteo Darmian, a revelation as an attacking right-back on his tournament debut, was more muted on his second showing. Andrea Pirlo ran one game in typically artful fashion and found Costa Rica’s midfield runners more capable of limiting his influence.
Lose to Uruguay on Tuesday and at least one great international career will come to an abrupt end. Pirlo, the man of the match in the 2006 World Cup final, the outstanding player of Euro 2012, will retire from international duty when Italy’s campaign is over.
Gianluigi Buffon, the other remaining mainstay of the 2006 team, was a fragile presence in goal in the Costa Rica game. The sands of time may be shifting against him.
The captain senses the parallels with the past. He said at a news conference: “In 10 tournaments only once were we already qualified by the third match. If I’m not wrong, five times we needed to draw and four times we needed to win.”
Normally, of course, Italy prevail, albeit after a scare.
“History teaches us that the higher the stakes, the better we respond,” Buffon said. “History also teaches us that it’s part of our DNA to make a mess of our second game after having started well but in the third game, we always respond. History has not changed so much.”
Two years ago, however, Italy did seem to change. Cesare Prandelli directed his players to attack, a refreshing approach that, despite the 4-0 final defeat to Spain, endeared them to the public as they cast aside the torpor of 2010.
Prandelli’s selection of Antonio Cassano harked back to 2012 but, reunited with Balotelli in the quest for an equaliser against Costa Rica, the great enigma was anonymous.
Prandelli showed a sure touch in his choices for much of his reign but his decisions to omit Giuseppe Rossi, who had recently recovered from a knee injury, and Mattia Destro, fresh from a fine season with Roma, may be deemed mistakes if the other forwards do not show more potency.
Prandelli’s tactical mastery has been a constant but his most adaptable midfielder, Daniele De Rossi, is sidelined. So, too, is Riccardo Montolivo, who had been earmarked for a key role. It may bring unwanted reminders of 2010, when Pirlo and Buffon were limited to one brief appearance apiece.
Now their World Cup careers have surely entered sudden death. Italy could stay in Brazil for the duration or face a second successive premature departure.
That, Buffon said: “Will definitely be a failure.”
Another one.
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