From: Gillian at One Stop Italy.

When I’m not arranging holidays in Italy for my customers, I enjoy watching (and occasionally playing) sport. So I’m really looking forward to the World Cup, when of course I shall be supporting England but will be keeping a close eye on the Italian team as my “back-up”! This strategy worked perfectly at the last tournament in 2006, when the “Azzurri” won the coveted Jules Rimet trophy after a tense penalty shoot-out in the final against France.

So what are their chances this time? Well, they’re in group F alongside Slovakia, Paraguay and New Zealand, so I fancy their chances of getting through the group stage at least. Things have not gone well for them in the run-up to this competition though – they have lost one friendly game against Mexico and drew a match against Switzerland a few days ago. But this last result may yet prove to be a good omen – they drew 1-1 with Switzerland prior to the 1982 and 2006 World Cups, both of which they went on to win.

Winning successive World Cups isn’t easy – it hasn’t been done since 1962 when Brazil were the victors. But I’ve got my giant Italian flag at the ready … just in case.