Montenegro v Italy:IRISH HOPES that little Montenegro might do them a favour by putting a major spanner in the Italian works when they play host to the reigning World champions in Podgorica this evening are little helped by the suspension-enforced absence of Montenegro's most experienced player, AS Roma striker Mirko Vucinic.

In contrast, Italy travel to the little Baltic state with a squad which, despite various injury-enforced absentees, should prove too strong for the host country.

Even though Luca Toni, Alberto Gilardino, Mauro Camoranesi, Simone Perrotta and Gennaro Gattuso have all been ruled out by injury, World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi can still count on a key core of players who featured in Germany three years ago. Captain Fabio Cannavaro, goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, full backs Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso, midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi as well as striker Vicenzo Iaquinta are all expected to line out not only in tonight’s game but also in Wednesday’s home qualifier against Ireland in Bari.

The in-form Udinese strikers, Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Quagliarella, are expected to partner Iaquinta in attack while Sampdoria midfielder Angelo Palombo may be drafted in alongside De Rossi and Pirlo.

At the end of a week when much Italian attention has focused on two players who do not currently form part of the Italian squad, Sampdoria’s Antonio Cassano and Juventus’s Brazilian-about-to-be-naturalised-Italian Amauri, Lippi and his players will be glad to let their football do the talking. So far results have gone Italy’s way with a similar record to Ireland, namely three wins and one draw.

Montenegro will look to Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic and Rapid Bucharest forward Radomir Djalovic to deliver the goals.

PROBABLE TEAMS

ITALY: (4-3-3) Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso; De Rossi, Pirlo, Palombo; Quagliarella, Iaquinta, Di Natale.

MONTENEGRO: (4-4-2) Poleksic; Pavicevic, Tanasijevic, Batak, Pejovic; Vukcevic, Boskovic, Bozovic, Drincic; Jovetic, Djalovic.