Eye on the ball: Hart has been preparing for penalties ahead of England's showdown with Italy

Prandelli's team arrived in Poland in disarray with their form blown to pieces as another domestic match-fixing scandal exploded. Many expected them to go out in the group stages as they did at the last World Cup yet, in typical Italian style, they summoned spirit from the chaos, just as they did in 1982 and 2006 when they conquered the world despite accusations of corruption.

 'In football and especially in Italy, you almost always have difficulties,' said Buffon. 'It is pretty hard to find a situation where everything is perfect but we as Italians are used to these difficulties.

 'We came here to Poland and Ukraine because we wanted to do better than 2010 and our primary objective was to surprise. So we don't want to settle on limits and we want to make them proud of us this time. We try to give our best on the pitch.'

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