Italy coach Cesare Prandelli hailed the personality and courage of his team after they recorded a 2-1 friendly win over world cham-pions Spain in Bari on Wednesday night.

The Azzurri took the lead after 10 minutes through Riccardo Montolivo and although Xabi Alonso drew Spain level from the penalty spot before the break, Alberto Aquilani grabbed the winner six minutes from time.

Prandelli was encouraged by the display and told reporters: “We must take this victory in the right way.

“For as long as we had the legs and the lucidity in our play we had a great game, but thereafter we lacked a little and we saw the order of what we have to do – to work even harder still, especially when we don’t have the ball.”

The coach was delighted by the performance of Antonio Cassano, who was given the captaincy for the match in his home city.

“He attacked space at the right time. It was one of his best performances for the national team,” Prandelli added.

Goalscorer Montolivo said: “We are happy because we faced a very strong team. Our approach to the game went well and we were especially good in the first half-hour.

“We gave a little, but in terms of ball possession it was hard to fight them. We will never be like Barce-lona, but we can provide quality on the counter-attack.

“On Wednesday we had an answer, and we did it. The crowd in Bari were fantastic and they dragged us to this victory.”

Bari native Cassano revealed he was surprised when coming back from the warm-up at his hometown stadium to find the armband on his locker.

“In all honesty, these are natural gestures and it came to mind on Tuesday. It seemed fairly normal considering it was a friendly and he’d care about this,” veteran keeper and Azzurri captain Gian-luigi Buffon said.

“For me it’s an honour to wear the armband, but this squad has many captains. If we can give this honour to someone else on a special occasion, then I’m happy.”