Italy – Georgia: another chance to improve the performance

Italy coach Marcello Lippi is set to ring the changes for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Georgia after the world champions scraped through their opener against Cyprus at the weekend.

Poor form is not the only problem for the Italian coach, who lost defenders Alessandro Gamberini and Fabio Grosso to injury in Saturday's 2-1 win, and Gennaro Gattuso, who hurt his wrist in training on Sunday.

The 2006 World Cup-winning coach has drafted Palermo's Antonio Nocerino into the squad for the AC Milan midfielder, who came on as a substitute in the Group Eight opener.

Possible teams:
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon; Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Nicola Legrottaglie, Andrea Dossena; Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Alberto Aquilani; Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino, Antonio Di Natale.

Georgia: George Loria; Ucha Lobjanidze, Zurab Khizanishvili, Kakha Kaladze, George Shashiashvili; Levan Kobiashvili, David Odikadze, Zurab Menteshashvili, Levan Kenia; Aleksandr Iashvili, Levan Mchedlidze.

Italy - Georgia Head to Head:
Italy won: 5
Draw: 1
Georgia won: 0

Genoa 13/10/2007 ITA 2:0 (1:0) GEO Euro Qualifying
Tbilisi 11/10/2006 GEO 1:3 (1:1) ITA Euro Qualifying
Tbilisi 02/06/2001 GEO 1:2 (0:1) ITA World Cup Qualifying
Ancona 11/10/2000 ITA 2:0 (0:0) GEO World Cup Qualifying
Tbilisi 10/09/1997 GEO 0:0 ITA World Cup Qualifying
Perugia 09/10/1996 ITA 1:0 (1:0) GEO World Cup Qualifying