Warm-up Games

31 May 2006: Switzerland 1-1 Italy (Geneva, Switzerland)
Alberto Gilardino earned a 1-1 friendly draw against fellow World Cup finalists Switzerland as the Azzurri continued their World Cup preparations. The Swiss equalised through Daniel Gygax. Francesco Totti was given his first start since fracturing his ankle.

Switzerland: Zuberbuhler (Coltorti 46); P Degen, Djourou, Senderos (Grichting 70), Magnin (Margairaz 46); Barnetta, Vogel, Cabanas (Spycher 46), Wicky (H Yakin 61); Gygax (D Degen 90), Frei.
Italy: Buffon; Zaccardo, Cannavaro, Materazzi (Oddo 46), Grosso (Bonera 60); Camoranesi (De Rossi 46), Pirlo (Perrotta 75), Gattuso; Totti, Del Piero (Iaquinta 46); Gilardino (Toni 46).
Ref: Sippel (Ger).


2 June 2006: Italy 0-0 Ukraine (Geneva, Switzerland)
Italy stretched their unbeaten run to 18 matches with a 0-0 draw against fellow World Cup finalists Ukraine. Ukraine, who will be making their World Cup debut, limited themselves to defence for most of the match. But Ukraine almost snatched a late winner when Andriy Voronin missed with only keeper Gianluigi Buffon to beat.

Italy: Buffon, Oddo, Nesta (Barzagli 61), Cannavaro (Materazzi 75), Grosso, Camoranesi (Barone 68), De Rossi, Pirlo (Perrotta 58), Gilardino, Del Piero (Totti 58), Toni (Inzaghi 58).
Ukraine: Shovkovskiy, Yezerskiy, Rusol, Vashchuk, Nesmachniy, Tymoschuk (Shelayev 88), Gusin (Sviderskiy 90), Rotan (Nazarenko 73), Kalinichenko (Byelik 55), Vorobey, Voronin.
Ref: Markus Nobs (Switzerland).


The worry for Italy after these two friendlies was the lack of inspiration, which they had shown in wins over the Netherlands (3-1) and Germany (4-1) in friendly matches earlier in the year.