Italy’s coach, Marcello Lippi, was angered by the way Swiss players played the game in their warm-up, saying that this could injure his own players.

Lippi, whose side face Ukraine in a further friendly on Friday, was unhappy at the uncompromising physical approach shown by the Italians’ fellow FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Wednesday’s game.

The silver-haired coach, already deprived of Alessandro Nesta and Gianluca Zambrotta, said he had been forced to change half his team during the second half because of Switzerland’s tactics.

“We came for a friendly, but we came across a team that was aiming for a little more than that,” he said aftewards.

“We suffered from so many incidents that I was forced to make substitutions that I hadn’t planned.”

Ukraine head into the friendly against Italy with a decisive 4-0 victory against Costa Rica under their belt.

Injuries have forced coach Oleg Blokhin to replace several key players.

However, worryingly for Lippi, the Italians may find in their last warm-up before Germany that the Ukranian substitutes from the under-21 side are just as eager to prove their worth as the Swiss youngsters.

Source: WCoffsite