Germany seeking elusive 'major' win
Reuters
BERLIN, Aug 19 (Reuters) - An injury-depleted Germany meet Italy in an international friendly on Wednesday eager to score their first victory against a major footballing nation in nearly three years.
With six World Cups between them, pride is the main thing at stake in the clash, but German coach Rudi Voeller is also aware that his side's easy run to the finals of the World Cup in 2002 masked a major dip in form for the three-time world champions.
They have not beaten a top international side since October 2000 when they defeated England 1-0 at Wembley.
Since then, the Germans have lost 1-0 to France, endured a humiliating 5-1 revenge hammering by England, lost 1-0 to Argentina, gone down 2-0 to Brazil in the World Cup final and lost 3-1 to Spain in February.
In the World Cup, they beat Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Paraguay, the United States and South Korea.
German coach Rudi Voeller, who played for Roma between 1987 and 1992 and has an Italian wife, is relishing the prospect of meeting Italy. The last time the two countries met ended in a 0-0 draw at the European Championships in England in 1996.
'Playing against Italy is a highlight in the career of any international. The players will feel how it's something special to play against such a world-class team,' said Voeller.
INJURY CONCERNS
Voeller however is likely to be without nine players because of injury, including talented midfielders Michael Ballack and Sebastian Deisler.
Dietmar Hamann, Christian Ziege, Torsten Frings, Christoph Metzelder, Joerg Boehme and Jens Nowotny are all sidelined, as is Hertha Berlin's Arne Friedrich, who injured his stomach muscles on Monday.
'The numbers backing out have been a bit much but I'm not going to spend my whole time moaning about it.
'It will be hard but we've always shown we can do well against teams of this calibre. We've always delivered good football.'
Voeller's problems have been compounded by the fact Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni has named an extremely strong squad for a match he does not consider as just another friendly.
'This game is not simply a friendly...there is prestige and honour at stake,' said Trapattoni, who has fewer headaches to contend with though defender Alessandro Nesta and midfielder Cristiano Zanetti will miss the game.
Trapattoni still, has a formidable strike force of Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Christian Vieri for the first time since last year's World Cup finals.
Juventus midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi looks likely to start alongside Simone Perrotta in central midfield in Zanetti's absence, after more than a year out of the side.
Probable teams:
Germany: Oliver Kahn, Andreas Hinkel, Frank Baumann, Christian Woerns, Paul Freier, Carsten Ramelow, Jens Jeremies, Tobias Rau, Bernd Schneider, Oliver Neuville, Fredi Bobic
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Christian Panucci, Nicola Lagrottaglie, Massimo Oddo, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessio Tacchinardi, Massimo Ambrosini, Simone Perrotta, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri.
