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Materazzi injured in lame Italy showing
ROME (AFP) - World Cup winners Italy, humbled 3-1 by Hungary in a friendly on Wednesday, will face France in next month's Euro 2008 qualifier missing defender Marco Materazzi.
The Inter Milan star, forever associated with his spectacular run-in with Zinedane Zidane in Berlin's Olympic Stadium last year, injured his right thigh in the embarrassing loss to the Hungarians in Budapest.
"An exact diagnosis will be made soon but he's going to need several weeks to get better," Italy team doctor Andrea Ferretti told ANSA on Thursday.
That leaves the 34-year-old sidelined for Italy's Group B qualifiers against beaten World Cup finalists France in Milan on September 8 and against Ukraine in Kiev four days later.
Italy were hauled over the coals by the Italian press on Thursday who described the Budapest result as "humiliating" and "lacking ideas" against a Hungarian side which was "more reactive and athletically fresher".
"An Italy like that - No!" headlined the Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Yesterday the earth on the pitch at Budapest was turned into quick sand and the Azzurri floundered in it. But it wasn't the fault of the groundsmen but because of the lame legs of the players," La Gazetta suggested.
Il Corriere della Sera expressed similar concern, telling its readers that this should "sound the alarm bell ahead of the match against France".
"There were a lot of things missing from this Italy side, in fact almost everything was missing," the paper said.
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