The aim for Milena Bertolini’s side now is to beat South Africa and go through to the round of 16 under their own steam, without having to depend on Argentina’s result against Sweden. The Azzurre travelled from Auckland to Wellington in the morning as they look to get a win at The Cake Tin tomorrow (9:00 CEST) and thereby book a ticket to Australia. The hope is that they will be travelling to either Melbourne or, more likely, Sydney should they finish second. Group E, which contains Italy’s potential round of 16 opponents, has already finished: the Netherlands finished top on seven points, while reigning world champions the USA came second on five.

 “Tomorrow is the decider,” Bertolini said in a press conference today. “It will be tense and whoever manages their nerves best will come out on top. We need to improve in our mental fortitude. We’re working on that and I’m sure that what happened against Sweden will teach us an important lesson.” In order to beat the South Africans, who are currently ranked 54th in the world by FIFA, Italy will need to take forward their good start against the Scandinavians. “I will ask the girls to replicate that first 35 minutes,” she added, “but also to play with more hunger, hard work and attention. It’ll be a battle and I expect my team to be determined. We’re taking on a side who are good on the counter and also very physical. We need to be alert and show that we have the hunger to get the result, towards which we’ve been working for a long time”.

Reaching the knock-out rounds for a second straight World Cup could depend on the experience of certain players in the group because they will be the ones “to lead the team in times of difficulty”, as Bertolini put it, though she did not give an opinion on the possibility of Girelli or others starting the match. Bertolini is not worried about a lack of goals and has put her faith in the concepts worked on by herself and the coaching staff in recent months. “We’re trying to play attacking football that is both pleasing to the eye and technical,” she concluded. “We’ve had issues getting players free in the box recently because we’re a technical side but not too physical. The whole team is working hard and I’m sure that they will start scoring again soon”.

In order to attain certain goals, it’ll be necessary for Elena Linari to step up, and not back down. The Roma defender didn’t sleep in the wake of Saturday’s defeat but once the disappointment had subsided, she immediately shifted focus to the decisive final game, which will be played in front of around 14,000 spectators. “We want to be ready for tomorrow’s match, which will be final,” Linari said. “We’ll need heart, grit and hunger to get a result that would historic for the women’s game in Italy. In order to do what we came here to do, we’ll need to be alert from start to finish, making sure that we don’t collapse, and making as few errors in our passing as possible”.