Socceroos Want Revenge Against Italy At 2010 World Cup

Socceroo veterans Mile Sterjovski and Craig Moore hope to face Italy at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, ahead of the draw for the tournament in Cape Town on Friday.

Key members of the Australia team that progressed past the group stages of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, they will have strong memories of being eliminated in controversial circumstances by the Azzurri in the Round of 16.

It was then that a late Francesco Totti penalty – won by what many perceived to have been a dive by full back Fabio Grosso in injury time – ended Australia’s World Cup dream.

"It would be good to come up against a team like Italy again," Sterjovski told Perth Now.

"It was a hard one to judge from there, but when you see replays you can see [Grosso] was kind of playing for it.

"At the big occasion the referee [Luis Medina Cantalejo] was under a lot of pressure and I think that was why he gave it.

"When the penalty happened, we just couldn't believe our eyes.”

With Italy down to ten men at the time after having had Marco Materazzi sent off in the first half – another debatable decision in a dramatic match – Sterjovski believes the eventual world champions were there for the taking in injury time.

He continued, "We played pretty well throughout the whole game and we thought if it did go to extra time we had a few extra players on the bench to come on.

"With fresh legs and one player more than them we thought if it went into extra time we would dominate even more.

"People didn't expect us to make it that far and it was good to make it into the second round and to have a good game against Italy.

"But I suppose it was a bit bitter knowing we were playing against 10 men for most of the game and we couldn't break through."

Those sentiments are shared by fellow A-League based Australia international Craig Moore, who saw central defensive partner Lucas Neill give away the infamous penalty with an ill-advised lunge.

"It would be nice to come up against them and hopefully reverse that result," he said.

"They definitely didn't outplay us at any stage, and they were the world champions.

"There's teams you'd like to avoid, but you're not going to go into the tournament worried too much about any team that you come up against."