Cannavaro praises Azzurri character

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro said the Azzurri had showed the stuff of world champions by beating Scotland 2-1 in Glasgow to secure qualification for UEFA EURO 2008™.

Top of group
Christian Panucci's injury-time header won all three points for Roberto Donadoni's side, who moved to the top of Group B, one point above France, and ended the Scots' hopes of qualifying. However, they had to dig deep for the victory against a determined Scotland team who cancelled out Luca Toni's second-minute opener through Barry Ferguson.

'Great team performance'
"We are strong, solid and determined. Whenever we need a win, we manage to show why we are the world champions," said Cannavaro. "It was not easy to win at Hampden Park but we produced a great team performance."

'Character'
"It was an important goal but the whole team played a great game tonight and got a deserved victory," added Toni. "The weather was very bad and the atmosphere was hot – it was very difficult to play in front of passionate fans like this. It would have been a huge blow not to qualify but once again we proved the character of this team."