IRENE, South Africa: If struggling Italy can’t manage to beat Slovakia on Thursday, the Azzurri could match France’s unenviable feat from the 2002 World Cup and exit the group stage as defending champion.
"We’re worried," midfielder Daniele De Rossi said. "I said it before and I’ll say it again. If we don’t make it past the first round it would be a failure."
Italy’s forwards have had trouble finding the target in their opening two games, both 1-1 draws, against Paraguay and 78th-ranked New Zealand.
"If we can’t win we don’t deserve to advance," De Rossi added. "We’re Italy and we ought to be able to win one of these three games — otherwise it would only be fair to go home."
Italy can comfort itself with the memory that it also drew its opening two matches in 1982, when it went on to win its third title. In fact, the Azzurri drew all three of their opening games in ’82.
"Don’t be surprised if this team starts to reel off some good results," coach Marcello Lippi said. "You count the horses at the end of the race."
Paraguay leads Group F with four points, Italy and New Zealand have two apiece and Slovakia is last with one.
If Italy wins the match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, it will advance automatically, while a draw would require the Azzurri to hope that the other group game also finishes in a draw and Italy scores more goals than New Zealand does against Paraguay.
If both group matches end in draws with the same score, a coin toss will decide whether Italy or New Zealand advances.
Slovakia’s best chance is to win and hope that Paraguay wins or draws.
Slovakia is playing in its first major tournament since the former Czechoslovakia divided in 1993. Coach Vladimir Weiss’s side allowed a stoppage time equalizer in its opening 1-1 draw with New Zealand and lost 2-0 to Paraguay.
"We missed our big chance with New Zealand and now it’s going to be very tough to qualify against Italy," said Slovakia’s attacking midfielder Marek Hamsik, who plays for Napoli in Italy’s Serie A.
"We’ve got to do more. Against Paraguay we weren’t able to put a shot on goal."
Slovakia defender Martin Petras also plays in Italy, with Cesena in Serie B.
"We have nothing to lose," Petras said. "They failed in the first match, they failed in the second, it’s difficult to see them failing in the third. Italy never fails like that. But let’s see, let’s hope for a miracle."
Lippi is comforting himself with the fact that Slovakia will have to go for a win, meaning Italy might not have to a face a team packing its defense for the first time at this tournament.
Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon will miss his second consecutive match with a herniated disk, again leaving the starting job to backup Federico Marchetti. Midfielder Andrea Pirlo, meanwhile, could return from a left calf injury that has kept him out since a pre-tournament friendly with Mexico on June 3.
Still, the biggest problems for Italy have been attack.
The Azzurri have scored only five goals in their past seven matches and only one forward has scored in open play: Fabio Quagliarella in a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in a pre-World Cup friendly.
Paraguay and New Zealand will be trying to write their own pieces of World Cup history when they meet in their final Group F match on Thursday.
Paraguay leads with four points and wants a win to be certain of topping the group and a gaining a smoother path to its first ever quarterfinal.
Winning the group will likely set up a match in the last 16 against Denmark or Japan instead of the higher-ranked Netherlands.
New Zealand has two points and must beat Paraguay — or get a better result than Italy does against Slovakia in a simultaneous match — to reach the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time.
This time, 78th-ranked New Zealand has stunned many by remaining unbeaten, with 1-1 draws against Slovakia and defending champion Italy.
"It’s the most incredible result we’ve had across the board," New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert said. "As a football coach, it’s way above anything we’ve achieved in the history of the game."
Captain Ryan Nelsen said opponents playing New Zealand don’t take anything for granted anymore.
"Probably people underestimated us, and now they’re not," he said.
"Most teams probably thought (playing New Zealand) was a banker for them. Now they know they’ll have to stand up and play well to beat us."
Earning their first World Cup points made the Kiwis not just proud, but left them longing for even more.
"We are always daring to dream," Herbert said. "At the World Cup anything is possible — we’ve seen some strange results."
