Italy coach Marcello Lippi is confident his experienced side will impress at the World Cup in South Africa this summer despite concerns locally that the players might not be up to the task and Lippi is coming under criticism for not bringing through enough youngsters.

The 62-year-old coach insists that the age of his side is not the most important factor and that there are many other qualities that are needed to have a successful World Cup.

Italy are in Group F along with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia and are favourites to proceed but many in Italy fear the team might not be able to recreate the success of 2006 with such an old side.

Marcello Lippi
You don't judge a player's quality on age or technical ability alone. Enthusiasm, experience, charisma, wisdom, international experience - they're all part of the equation. The World Cup is about seven games over a month, we don't necessarily need all the players to be 24 years old. If I had to use this team over an entire league season I'd probably make some different selections. But for a month it's not a problem.