Quagliarella : Italy Will Arrive In The Best Possible Condition

Fabio Quagliarella believes Italy will arrive in South Africa “in the best possible condition” for their World Cup defence.

The Azzurri’s underwhelming preparations for the World Cup were concluded with a 1-1 draw against fellow finalists Switzerland on Saturday, with a 2-1 loss to Mexico the only other warm-up match played by Marcello Lippi’s side.

Lippi has elected to focus the squad’s efforts on altitude training rather than match sharpness in the build-up to the tournament and Napoli striker Quagliarella, who netted the equaliser against the Swiss, believes little should be read into recent results.

Quagliarella told reporters that : “The coach asked us to put in a good performance in the final game before we travel to South Africa and I think we did that,”.

“It is normal that against Mexico we suffered a little from fatigue given it was our first test since the end of the season.”

“The bottom line is that we arrive at the tournament in the best possible condition and who knows where we can go from there. Let’s not forget we are still the current world champions.”