To suggest that Italy coach Roberto Donadoni was trembling in his boots at the thought of facing Ireland in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals would be to exaggerate. However, Donadoni was quick last night to distance himself from those media commentators who suggested that a group comprising Ireland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro was very "accessible", if not to say "easy" for the reigning World Champions: "On paper, it does not look like a very tough group but as we Italians know well, it's when things seem easy that they become dangerous for us.
"The draw is fine, we're not up against teams of huge tradition, that should be a good thing for us. All the same, these are difficult teams - Montenegro, like all the teams from ex-Yugoslavia, are technically very gifted; you could say the same of Ireland; we know Georgia well, having just played against them in the Euro 2008 qualifiers," Donadoni told Italian TV last night. "Compared to the other teams, Bulgaria is probably the side of greatest tradition and, on paper at least, they might be the team to fight it out with us for first place in the group."
Donadoni's predecessor, Marcello Lippi, the man who led Italy to win the World Cup last summer, took a similar view, arguing against Italian overconfidence. Despite that warning, though, even he had to conclude that it was probably a good draw for Italy, saying: "At first glance, it doesn't look like a tough group to me but you've got to be careful, you've got to bear in mind that football is changing all the time. In recent years all national teams have got a lot better and you simply have to be wary of every team without underrating any side. All in all, though, on paper it looks like a good draw."
Donadoni, a former AC Milan and Italy player, took over from Lippi last summer, immediately after Italy's World Cup triumph. Initially, things did not go well for the new boss as an Italian team, still on a high after the World Cup success, took some time to come down to earth again.
Italy dropped five points in their first two Euro 2008 qualifiers in the autumn of 2006, being held to a 1-1 home draw by little Lithuania before losing 3-1 away to France in a rematch of the Berlin World Cup final.
Since then, Donadoni has righted the Italian ship, winning nine and drawing one of Italy's subsequent 10 qualifying games. The "Azzurri" clinched their place at Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland with an excellent 2-1 away win over Scotland at Hampden Park.
Bulgarian FA president Borislav Mikhailov, who played for Reading in the mid-1990s, said meeting the Irish would constitute a race for second place.
"It's always difficult playing them," he said, "especially over there. It's a big challenge but if you want to go to the play-offs, you have to beat them."
