Holland Coach Marco Van Basten believes old friend Roberto Donadoni has infused his warrior spirit into the Azzurri.
“We are facing a very difficult adversary with great experience. They won the World Cup two years ago and have not changed much since that day.
“I can say that Roberto is a friend, we know each other very well. We played in the same team, played golf together and even went on holiday together. He is a fighter. If the team plays like him, then it’ll be tough.”
The former Milan colleagues head into Euro 2008’s so-called Group of Death knowing it could be a crucial result before facing France and Romania.
Van Basten has had to do without Ryan Babel and Arjen Robben for this game, while Robin Van Persie is not 100 per cent fit either.
“Robben strained his groin, which will take around 10 days to recover. His particular characteristics mean he is a very important player for us and we hope to have him back soon. However, we have another 20 players and many different options. I can’t talk about it, but we’ve found an excellent solution.”
The Coach refused to be drawn on what line-up he’ll adopt against Italy, even to the Dutch media.
“This is a very important game and it is better if we don’t make our opponents even stronger than they already are. If anything, we’ll try to take advantage of their errors.
“We are going to have to play very well to get through this round. We respect Italy, but we too have excellent players.
“If we have the wind in our sails then we can go very far, but if for any reason the wind is blowing against us, we could also be knocked out in the first round.”
