The omens are not good and the nerves maybe not too steady. Italy's World Cup play-off against Russia in Moscow tomorrow night was always going to be a tough assignment but a combination of autumn rains, freezing weather, injuries and polemics about the loyalties of the referee make the first leg game look a tougher job by the minute.
The omens for tomorrow night are poor and the weather forecast is worse. It has rained so heavily in Moscow this autumn that the pitch at the Lenin Olympic Stadium is deemed unplayable with tomorrow night's game accordingly shifted to Dinamo Moscow's Leningradski Prospekt ground. Furthermore, the weather reports from Moscow register temperatures currently ranging between seven degrees and minus one degree celsius.
The Italian Federation is taking no chances. The official team equipment sponsor, Nike, has been asked to provide soccer boots specially designed for use on snow-covered or semi-frozen pitches. On top of that, the Italian team flew to Moscow yesterday complete with team chef and an adequate supply of olive oil, pasta, parmigiano cheese, tomatoes, salads and mineral water.
Perhaps more importantly, the conditions expected in Moscow seem certain to influence coach Cesare Maldini when he names his side. All the latest indications suggest that Maldini will drop Chelsea's Gianfranco Zola, replacing him with Olympique Marseille's Fabrizio Ravanelli as a partner for Atletico Madrid's Christian Vieri in attack.
Since taking over the Italian team last December, Maldini has always used a "little and large" attacking formula which saw Zola partnered by either Ravanelli, Vieri or Lazio's Pierluigi Casiraghi. The heavy pitch conditions may persuade Maldini to drop Zola and play two "big men" up front. It would also seem that the Italian coach was less than overwhelmed with Zola's performance in that all-decisive crucial 0-0 draw with England at the Olympic Stadium in Rome two weeks ago.
It is also true that Ravanelli received his call-up for this game, game via fax and days ahead of his team mates.team-mates. Omitted from the disappointing 0-0 draws with Georgia (in midSeptember) and England only because he was without a club at the time, Ravanelli has been called back in just as soon as his refound goalscoring touch with his new French club signalled his wellbeing.
If Maldini seems set to make changes in attack out of choice, he has no option but to ring defensive changes. First choice goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi of Juventus is out through injury and is due to be replaced by Inter Milan's inform goalkeeper, Gianluca Pagliuca, who would thus pick up his 33rd cap.
Furthermore, the coach's son, Paolo Maldini, has yet to recover from the ankle injury which saw him substituted against England. If he fails to recover in time for tomorrow night's tie, he may be replaced by the once-capped Gianluca Pessotto of Juventus.
Elsewhere, the side has a familiar look. Alessandro Costacurta at sweeper, Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta (again in place of the injured Ciro Ferrara) in central defence and Demetrio Albertini and Dino Baggio in midfield all featured in the match against England.
One important midfield change concerns the welcome return of Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo, who could not face England because he was suspended. Another midfield change may be the inclusion of Lazio's Diego Fuser, called in on the right to replace Angelo Di Livio, sent off against England and thus suspended for both legs of the play-off.
As if Italian nerves were not already a trifle touchy, Spartak Moscow's dynamic little midfielder Dimitrij Alenichev opted to enliven the pre-match mood yesterday by voicing his concern that the match would not be correctly handled by Danish referee Peter Mikkelsen.
"Everybody says that the World Cup finals without Italy wouldn't really be the World Cup finals," Alenichev said. "I don't know Mikkelsen but I think it quite possible that he might favour Italy and if Italy did qualify thanks to the referee, it certainly wouldn't do much for the image of Italian football."
Even without the pre-match hype and the cold snows of a Moscow October evening, this Russian squad is strong enough to stop a number of sides in their tracks. Since Russia's failure at Euro '96, new coach Boris Ignatiev has tried to strike a balance between Russian-based players and those spread throughout European soccer.
That said, however, he can be expected to use experienced exiles tomorrow night, including such as strikers Sergei Yuran (Bochum), and Igor Kolivanov (Bologna), as well as midfielder Andrei Kanchelskis (now with Fiorentina formerly of Manchester United and Everton) and the all-important sweeper Viktor Onopko (Oviedo). Ignatiev means business. A tough night awaits Italy.
