Reigning champions Italy arrived in South Africa on Wednesday to defend their crown after tournament favourites Spain showed off their firepower as they scored six times in their final warm-up game.
Coach Marcello Lippi’s Italian squad, which includes nine of the players in the squad which triumphed four years ago in Germany, were guarded by dozens of police after their plane touched down at Johannesburg airport.
They headed off to the Leriba Golf Lodge, just outside Pretoria, to prepare for their opening Group F match against Paraguay on Monday.
Italy have rarely shone since their triumph against France in the 2006 final in Berlin, but the country’s football federation chief Giancarlo Abete insisted it would be a mistake to write off Lippi’s squad. But history is against the Italians — no country has ever won back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962. — AFP