Against Israel: Italians sure normal service will resume

After last week’s embarrassing home defeat to France

HAIFA: New Italy coach Giampiero Ventura said he was unconcerned by Thursday’s home defeat to France ahead of his team’s opening World Cup qualifier in Israel tonight.

The 2006 World Cup champions slumped to a 3-1 defeat in Bari on Thursday but Ventura, who took over the Azzurri hotseat from new Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, does not expect such a stern test in Haifa.

“With the greatest of respect, Israel aren’t France. We will analyse [the] match, we’ll look at some errors that we can avoid and I’m sure we’ll put in a better performance,” said Ventura, 68.



Even so, there is anxiety in the Italian camp with striker Graziano Pelle, who scored against France, insisting: “There are no excuses, we must beat Israel.”

Italy are expected to battle with Spain for top spot in Group G and the only automatic qualification place.

The 2010 world champions begin their campaign against minnows Liechtenstein while Albania and Macedonia round out the group.

‘Bale primed for Wales return’

Gareth Bale takes his first step on the road to World Cup qualification with Wales against Moldova tonight and manager Chris Coleman believes he is still getting better.

Bale, 27, scored thrice as Wales created a sensation by reaching the semi-finals at Euro 2016, matching the best performance by a British team in an overseas tournament.

The challenge now facing him is to build on that momentum by firing Wales to the 2018 World Cup in Russia and Coleman says the Real Madrid flier is hungry to make more history.



“Gareth scored inside 75 seconds of Real’s first game of the season [against Real Sociedad], but I never get surprised by him,” said Coleman ahead of the Group D opener at Cardiff City Stadium. “I know he’s capable of almost anything and I think Madrid are very excited about the future with Balo. They recognise that they’ve got someone who’s going to be there for a while and someone who is capable of winning everything.”

Wales were among the fourth seeds in qualifying for Euro 2016, but their exploits in France catapulted them into Pot One for the World Cup qualifying draw.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.