Italy: the land of culture, wine, beautiful cuisine and the best defenders in all of the land. You say pizza, I say Franco Baresi. You say Sistine Chapel, I say Fabio Cannavaro.

And so we come to yet another international tournament where Italy's main strength is in their ability to stop other teams from scoring. Without a proven international goalscorer or brilliant creator of chances, Italy really lack firepower. In the past the likes of Fillipo Inzaghi or Christian Vieri were around to bang in the goals but the promise of Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano and Guiseppe Rossi never really came to be.

Furthermore, injuries to Claudio Marchisio and Marco Veratti could prove to be massive for Antonio Conte - without these two, Italy don't have quite as strong a defensive shield in front of their back four either. Conte's solution? Pin the opposite team in their own half and get the ball into the box.

So how does that work?

Without any truly world class forwards or Roberto Baggio types to pick from, the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 that absolutely everyone in the world seems to use these days, becomes ineffective. Italy instead play to their strengths and have usually started with three at the back.