France striker Thierry Henry is in confident mood as he looks ahead to meeting Italy’s near watertight defence in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Italy defenders Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluca Zambrotta as well as keeper Gianluigi Buffon have all been nominated for the prestigious Golden Ball award, but Henry insists he has nothing to fear.
“People talk about how difficult it is to score against Italian defenders. But I didn’t have trouble scoring against Italian teams in the Champions League, so I don’t see why it should be different this time,” said Henry.
“I constantly hear this talk about their defenders. Yet the reason they don’t concede goals is because they defend as a team, not because Cannavaro or Marco Materazzi are great players.”
“Italy are a very good team,” he added.
“I saw their match. All the time people talk about defenders, but the reason they don’t concede goals is because they defend as a team, not because Cannavaro or Marco Materazzi are great players.”
“The most important thing with us is that we play as a team. No one is trying to shine. We’re all trying to play for each other, fight for each other. That’s the main thing right now. The final will be a remake of Euro 2000. Hopefully, we can have the same outcome. But Italy have shown they are a strong side. To knock out Germany like they did was pretty amazing.”
Henry has also paid tribute to a French team, who took some time to get into their stride.
“It was difficult early in the competition,” Henry added. “It took time to get going but we always believed in ourselves. Most of this team have been together a long time. That has been very important.”
