‘In Italy the most important thing is winning’.

A frank and truthful statement from Fabio ‘Il Capitano’ Cannavaro. However, despite the improvement in results in the past week, the level of performance is far from desirable. What seems to be the root of the problem? Is it irrelevant that the team is playing so poorly if the positive results continue? One thing is certain, with Sampdoria travelling to Turin on Wednesday, Ciro Ferrara will need to see a drastic improvement from his troops.

Passport? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Vuvuzela? Hmm perhaps not. With a stroke of Alberto Gilardino’s foot in the 90th minute in Dublin on Saturday night, La Nazionale confirmed their place at next year’s World Cup. The Fiorentina hit man described it as ‘the most important goal of his international career so far’, and boy was he right.