From the Irish viewpoint, the good news is that there will be no Buffon, Totti or Cassano in the Italian squad that flies into Dublin today for tomorrow evening's friendly tie at Lansdowne Road.
From the Italian viewpoint, the good news is that coach Marcello Lippi goes into the game under little or no pressure, certainly by the standards of Italian coaches.
Lippi's Italy is currently riding high in World Cup qualifying Group Five, four points clear of joint second-placed Norway and Slovenia. A place in the finals in Germany next summer is there for the taking.
At the Italian Federation centre of Coverciano, Florence, where the squad gathered yesterday afternoon, Lippi was in easy-going, relaxed mood. Asked by an Italian colleague for an assessment of Brian Kerr's team, his response was pure manager-speak: "They're a good team, they have Robbie Keane who I coached at Inter and they have that guy from Chelsea (Duff) and then there is that Manchester United defender (O'Shea)."
In truth, like most coaches, Lippi is more concerned with his own squad. This game with Ireland had been arranged as the perfect preparation for Italy's two away World Cup qualifying ties early next month, against Scotland and then Belarus respectively.
With home ties against Slovenia and Moldova to follow those two ties, Italy realistically only need to pick up away draws to secure their place in Germany next summer.
Even if he's not overly familiar with the Irish surnames (nor indeed the squad, given that Robbie Keane misses this game), Lippi, nonetheless, has plenty of respect for Ireland.
Talking to The Irish Times before he led his players out for training yesterday, Lippi offered this assessment of tomorrow night's game: "I don't know if Ireland is the ideal opponent for us just now but certainly, they're a good team, they come from the Anglo-Saxon school of football, they have lots of players who do well in English club football and they're doing really well in their World Cup qualifying group at the moment so, whatever else, you'd have to call them serious opposition.
"You tell me that this Ireland is probably a better side than the Scottish team we will face next month. I don't know that. At the moment, I'd say Ireland is probably a team that really believes in itself and for that reason, this will be an important test for us".
As for the Italian players ruled out of tomorrow night's game, Lippi is not complaining. He had probably intended to field an intriguing and unprecedented Totti-Vieri-Gilardino front line, but a bout of influenza has ruled out Totti.
Before Irish fans get too happy about Totti's absence, however, it is worth pointing out that his replacement may be Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus).
The other big absentee from the attack, Totti's Roma team-mate, Antonio Cassano, is currently in contractual dispute with his club and, for that reason, Lippi has opted to omit him.
Given that we are still two weeks away from the start of the Serie A season, Lippi is all too aware that many of his players are well short of match fitness. For that reason, he intends to ring the changes using several second-half substitutes.
Lippi's first half team, though, will be pretty close to his ideal first choice World Cup line-up. Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan) and Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus) in central defence, Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus) at left back, Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan) and Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan) in midfield and Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan) and Christian Vieri (AC Milan) in attack are all likely starters.
Goalkeeper "Gigi" Buffon, who injured his shoulder during Juventus's 2-1 loss to AC Milan in a prestige friendly at the San Siro on Sunday night, will probably be replaced by Morgan De Sanctis (Udinese) for one half and by Fabio Roma (Monaco) for the other. Palermo defender Christian Zaccardo should start at right back whilst Del Piero, Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese) and Luca Toni (Fiorentina) may all get a run-out in the front line.
Reminded of Ireland's excellent home record, we wondered if Lippi would be happy with a draw in tomorrow night's game: "That's not a question I ever ask myself. Every coach prepares his side to win, you give it a go and if you don't win, too bad. It is no big deal".
Lippi is looking and sounding ominously relaxed.
