Christian Panucci insists the reason for his continual omission from the Italian national squad is laughable.
The Roma stopper has been frozen out of the international scene ever since Marcello Lippi was handed the Italy job after Euro 2004.
Despite arguably being Italy’s best right-back option, Lippi has left him out following an altercation between the pair during their time together at Inter.
“Italy is one of the few countries in the world where a player can be left out because he isn’t liked,” he told Italia 1 on Wednesday.
Although Panucci maintains that he is a better player than Palermo’s Cristian Zaccardo, who Lippi has continually opted for, he’s archived his Azzurri ambitions.
“Is Zaccardo better than me? I don’t really think so,” he commented. “Nevertheless, I’m not wasting my time thinking about it. I’d rather just forget about it.”
The former Milan and Real Madrid ace, capped 48 times by Italy, is now just focusing on Roma’s aim of finishing fourth in Serie A and thus qualifying for the Champions League.
The club are currently fifth in the table, just one point behind Fiorentina who they will face in Florence on Sunday.
“The time has come to achieve our objective,” he added. “We are well up for it and I think we could win or draw at the very least.
“A win for either side would be a decisive one at this stage of the campaign.”
Roma go into the game after collecting a morale boosting 1-1 draw with champions and leaders Juventus on Saturday night.
发表于 2006-2-19 07:18:00
发表于 2006-2-19 23:11:00
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