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Italy, France know each other well
Many players teammates on club level, rivals at World Cup
Posted: Tuesday June 30, 1998 01:34 PM
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Many of the Italian and French team members play together in Italy for teams such as Juventus (Ross Kinnaird/AP) |
CLAIRE FONTAINE, France (AP) --
Instead of the Stade de France, Friday's quarterfinal between Italy and France
might as well be played on a cozy piazza somewhere in northern Italy. Many
players are there much of the time anyway. Just about every player
will be facing a friend, or a club teammate, current or former, when the
two neighboring countries face off. Even their team color is identical --
Les Bleus vs. the Azzurri. Like migrant laborers, the French have
flocked to Italy's Serie A over the past 15 years, slowly acquiring the
skills, poise and winner's mentality that has marked the classic Italian
payer. For every Alessandro del Piero, there is a Zinedine Zidane.
For every Paolo Maldini, there is a Marcel Desailly. "It will be a
game between Italians and thoe playing there," said French captain Didier
Deschamps, who played for four years with Italian champion Juventus Turin.
Zidane is Juventus' star playmaker and has underlined time and again
how Italy has toughened up his game. "It's an advantage to have our
players there," said French coach Aime Jacquet. The great Michel
Platini was France's first major success in Italy and the playmaker who led
Juventus to the 1985 European Champions Cup. "Italy has contributed
a lot. It has made us stronger," said Deschamps. Marco Simone is
Italy's top export to France but the Paris St. Germain striker failed to
make it on the Azzurri squad. Marseille's Fabrizio Ravanelli had to pull
out of the World Cup because of illness. "French players who come to
the Serie A improve their technial skills and overall play. So this is
their advantage," said Parma's Enrico Chiesa, who has France's Lilian
Thuram and Alain Boghossian as teammates. Such closeness can prove a
special motivator. "I'll have to do everything possible to win,
otherwise I'll have to listen to their taunts at Juventus all year," said
Deschamps a teammate of Del Piero, Gianluca Pessotto, Filippo Inzaghi and
Angelo Di Livio. Youri Djorkaeff knows all about goalie Gianluca
Pagliuca at Inter Milan, and during the World Cup they have been in steady
phone contact, although that might change over the next few days. "He
scored against me in an exhibition match last year," said Pagliuca. "So I
told him 'enough is enough'." It's pretty clear there are no secrets
between the national teams this way, in a match that in some ways will
resemble a top Serie A game -- disciplined, with special care for defense
and counting on that individual burst of class to make the difference.
"We have very good information on them," said French defender Laurent
Blanc. "By winning we want to show how much we owe them," said
Deschamps.
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