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As he prepared for the World Cup quarterfinal match against Ukraine, Italian national team strategist Marcello Lippi was annoyed by rumors that his team, after snatching victory in the last minute of the round of 16 match against Australia, was the luckiest one left in the tournament. "I'd like to say something about these rumors that we were lucky. We had Francesco Totti, who hadn't played for three months, then Gianluca Zambrotta, Gennaro Gattuso, and Alessandro Nesta got injuries. That's real luck," the Italian coach quipped.
Lippi also dismissed critics who claimed that his players were playing negative football: "In the last few years we tried to play with an attacking style and we had some really great games that everyone enjoyed. But now, after a couple of different games, we're hearing this exaggerated talk. We came to the World Cup with all our enthusiasm, but also a million problems, including those with Totti and the other injuries."
"To top it off, we have to deal with unprecedented chaos going on in Italy," continued the coach of the team that hasn't lost in 22 games, referring to the earthquake in Serie A - "Now we hear that we're regressing and being old-fashioned - I think that's too much."
The Italian national team was also shocked by news of the serious condition of the manager of the Turin team "Juventus," a former national team defender. The 35-year-old Italian fell from a height of 15 meters through a window on Tuesday and suffered serious injuries, ending up in the hospital.
It is reported that the player, whose career was exchanged for work at the club this summer by G. Pessotto, suffered from depression, and the Turin police have begun to investigate a possible suicide attempt. According to doctors, on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, he was on the brink of death and his condition remains serious. His good friend from Germany, Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluca Zambrotta, as well as one of the national team coaches Ciro Ferrara, had already arrived to visit him.
