"We're Italy and if we qualify it will be by playing football," coach Gian Piero Ventura insisted on Sunday on the eve of a crunch World Cup play-off against Sweden in Milan. Four-time world champions Italy need to overturn a 1-0 first-leg defeat to avoid missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1958. "We need everything tomorrow -- tactics, heart and determination," Ventura told a press conference at the team's Appiano Gentile training centre north of Milan. The 69-year-old remained jovial and defiant that his troops would be on the road to Russia, adding he was "amazed people are surprised we're in the play-offs".

Italy's coach Gian Piero Ventura during the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification football match between Sweden and Italy in Solna,Sweden on November 10, 2017. Pic/ AFP