TALY-GHANA: Coaches' quotes

12 June 2006

Marcello LIPPI (ITA)

It was an entertaining game; we got a good result and played well. I'm particularly happy for the squad, who haven't had things easy recently. We did our homework, and Ghana played just as we expected. They have a lot of strengths - they’re physically powerful, skilful and quick on the break, but we knew we could exploit some of their weaker points. So it proved, and we came away with the victory. The Czech Republic are a very good side, perhaps the strongest in the group, but we have nothing to fear. We’re going to take things one day at a time and go as far as we possibly can.

Ratomir DUJKOVIC (GHA)
I'm happy with the way my players performed, they played well. Congratulations to Italy, who did well today. I still think that had the marking on (Andrea) Pirlo been tighter when he scored the first goal, the match could have gone very differently. The second goal was just a simple defensive error. But football is like that, there are winners and losers. We're not afraid of the Czech Republic, we just need to pick ourselves up and show what we can do in the next game. Anything is possible in football, and I don't see the Czech Republic as invincible by any means.