Old man Panucci prepared to shoulder Italian defensive burden

BADEN (Austria)  - With World Cup winning veteran central defenders Fabio Cannavaro and Marco Materazzi either out injured or out of favour it has fallen to another old stager Christian Panucci to marshal the defence in Sunday's Euro 2008 quarter-final against Spain.

The 35-year-old has an even greater incentive to deliver only Italy's second European title as he was not part of the World Cup winning squad, having failed to find favour with then coach Marcello Lippi, who he had not got on with when at Inter Milan.

However, it maybe doesn't matter as much to the 56-times capped defender - who may have only scored four goals but two have been crucial - one earning them an injury-time win over Scotland which got them to the finals and the other the draw with Romania which garnered a point here.

He cheated death in 1996 on returning early from the Olympics after picking up an injury. He decided in a twist of fate to switch flights - his original TAW flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.