Italy will be out for revenge when they kick-off their European U21 Championship campaign against Serbia.
Casiraghi keen to avoid a repeat of 2007 opener
Italy will be out for revenge when they kick-off their European U21 Championship campaign against Serbia on Tuesday.
The Azzurri slipped to a 1-0 defeat to the Serbs in their opening game of the 2007 tournament.
That signalled the start of a disappointing competition for the Italians, who crashed out at the group stages.
Among the favourites once again this time around, Pierluigi Casiraghi is determined to ensure similar problems do not befall his side two years on and he will enter the first fixture in confident mood.
With a wealth of attacking talent at his disposal he has every reason to be upbeat, with the only dilemma weighing on his mind concerning whether or not to use the creativity of Robert Acquafresca, Sebastian Giovinco and Mario Balotelli in tandem or whether to adopt a more cautious approach.
"It's the first game and Serbia are a very high-level team, but you also have to bear in mind that this group of players have played a certain type of football for the last three years," Casiraghi told
uefa.com.
"The important thing about playing with three forwards is it gives you a big advantage and a lot of possibilities when you have the ball and are attacking, especially with three players like Giovinco, Balotelli and Acquafresca. On the other side we don't want to get exposed at the back."
Solutions
While Casiraghi faces a welcome headache regarding his selection, the options available to Serbia coach Slobodan Krcmarevic are more straightforward.
The Serbs, who finished as runners-up in 2007, have seen star striker Filip Djordjevic head home this week after suffering a fracture to his foot.
Krcmarevic can, however, still boast a number of useful alternatives and he believes his side will provide tough opposition for the much-fancied Italians.
"We have a little problem with our attackers but we have other very good players like [Zoran] Tosic, who is playing for Manchester United, [Miralem] Sulejmani from Ajax, Rade Veljoviæ from [CFR] Cluj, so we have many solutions.
"I think it is 50-50."
