Italy

The Italians are seventh-favourites going into the tournament, but that doesn’t worry the 62-year-old.

“Italy has never been amongst the favourites, I don’t remember a World Cup where we’ve been favourites,” Lippi said. “The favourites are rightly Brazil and Spain, but you also have to add other strong teams to the mix.”

“I’ve said it many times before, there’s Brazil, Spain and then five or six other teams, such as England, Holland, Germany, Italy and France, that don’t go just to do well, they go to win and want to win,”  he added.

“Sometimes they manage it and we’ve won it four times. But a World Cup is special, it’s not always technical ability that decides who wins, there are other things,” he added.

The World Cup-winning coach insisted that the Italy team are not an aged and creaking side, as some pundits believe.

“We’re not the oldest team here, there are three or four teams that are older than us,” said the coach.

“We’ve got a good mix, we have nine players from 2006, that’s less than 50 percent,” he said. “But I’ve never seen another team that’s won the last World Cup to turn up with 23 different players the next time. We’ve got old players but age doesn’t mean broken down, it means experience, charisma.”

Lippi also defended his decision to keep AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo in his 23-man squad despite the fact he is suffering from a calf strain.

Pirlo will not be fit before Italy’s third group game but despite bringing along a 24th player, in Cagliari’s Andrea Cossu, Lippi is unwilling to let his playmaker go.

“He’s here because the team doctors said he will be ready by the third game,” said Lippi.

“Over the last few days I have been recovering and I feel less pain,” Pirlo told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The situation is encouraging as the lesion has started to heal. I have faith, even though the return will be defined step by step.”

Meanwhile, Mauro Camoranesi resumed training on Thursday for the first time since his knee injury.

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