Prandelli wary of potential quarter-final opponents

Cesare Prandelli has admitted he is wary of all three of Italy’s potential quarter-final opponents.

Italy will discover on Tuesday night who they will play in Kiev on Sunday but the coach said he had no particular preference.

“They are three teams with different characteristics but they are all set up well,” said Prandelli.

“The 4-2-3-1 that France play is very interesting and dangerous. They’re a modern attacking team who don’t give you a point of reference.

“They control the midfield and then push up. France are to be feared.

“England are finding the right equilibrium. We all know the English character, they never hold anything back but they also have some good fantasy players.

“Ukraine have good team spirit and they play good football.”

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Italy coach, who believes his own team have performed well in the competition so far.

Italy drew 1-1 with both world champions Spain and Croatia before beating Ireland 2-0 on Monday.

“We played the best team of the last few years in our first game, a team destined to win something important, and we did very well,” said Prandelli.

“In the second game we played well for 60 minutes but then from a long ball we conceded an equaliser which took qualification out of our hands.

“In the third match we played a team with strong character and nothing to lose.

“I’ve never seen an Ireland team trying to win the ball in our area and playing so many forwards in the last minutes, So it’s normal we struggled.

“But we created chances so my verdict is high for many reasons, not least for our spirit.”