Football / European round-up: Platt spared conflict of club and country

(First Edition)

ARRIGO SACCHI, the Italy coach, this week asked Serie A clubs not to overwork his players in advance of the World Cup finals next year. 'If players are burnt out in May then there will be no chance of them recovering,' Sacchi said after the victory over Portugal which saw his side qualify.

David Platt, fresh from the disappointment of England's exit, would doubtless welcome such worries. Instead, he must concentrate on is trying to steer his club, Sampdoria, back to the top, while contemplating the state of the game at home. Sacchi's remarks might have struck a chord. 'If you neglect training and just play matches all the time you can end up with some nasty surprises,' Sacchi added. 'England can tell you something about that.'

Platt returns to league action for the game against Foggia today with Sampdoria striving to regain the leadership they lost two weeks ago, when surprisingly they were beaten 2-1 by Cagliari.

Ruud Gullit, Platt's Sampdoria team-mate, is optimistic. 'Nobody expected that defeat against Cagliari,' Gullit said, 'but now we've got to concentrate on Foggia. They haven't won a single home game this season, while we've got good results in away matches. Let's hope that pattern continues for at least one more Sunday.'

Foggia are expected to field their strongest side, including the Dutch striker Bryan Roy, Argentinian defender Jose Chamot, Russian striker Igor Kolivanov and Italian international Giovanni Stroppa, all of whom played for their respective countries in Wednesday's World Cup qualifiers.

The champions, Milan, who are second, had four foreigners and seven Italians involved in World Cup matches. Their most recent acquisition, the French midfielder Marcel Desailly, bought from Marseille for a reported pounds 3.5m, is unlikely to make his debut against Napoli.

Milan are instead expected to rely on Demetrio Albertini and Fernando De Napoli in central midfield, while the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Papin may be partnered by Marco Simone in attack, with Brian Laudrup playing on the right side of midfield.

Napoli are expected to field the Uruguyan striker Daniel Fonseca and Swedish midfielder Jonas Thern but will be without their injured first-choice goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatella, who is due to be replaced by Raffaele Di Fusco. Parma, the leaders, one point clear of Juventus and Sampdoria, are expected to field Nestor Sensini, the Argentinian who they bought from Udinese for pounds 2.7m to replace the injured Belgian Georges Grun.

Juventus, at home to Cagliari, may give a second-half run to their striker Gianluca Vialli who has been out since the second day of the season when he broke his foot. Lazio will field the Croat striker Alen Boksic against Torino but will be without Paul Gascoigne, who is still suffering from tendinitis.

Italy head the Fifa world rankings after the World Cup games this week. The positions, issued monthly, are based on performances over the last six years.

----------------------------------------------------------------- Fifa world rankings ----------------------------------------------------------------- Points 1 Italy. . . . . . . 59.76 (3). 2 Netherlands. . . . 59.40 (6). 3 Germany. . . . . . 58.89 (4). 4 Brazil . . . . . . 58.50 (1). 5 Norway . . . . . . 57.89 (2). 6 Denmark . . . . . .57.16 (5). 7 Spain . . . . . . .57.13 (7). 8 England . . . . . .56.38 (10). 9 Argentina . . . . .55.18 (9) 9 Switzerland . . . .55.18 (13). 11 Sweden . . . . . . 54.81 (8). 12 Romania . . . . . .54.73 (15). 13 Ireland . . . . . .52.37 (11). 14 Russia . . . . . . 52.14 (11) 15 France . . . . . . 52.10 (14). 16 Nigeria . . . . . .51.75 (16). 17 Mexico . . . . . . 51.37 (18). 18 Uruguay . . . . . .51.14 (19). 19 Czech and Slov Repubs . . . . . .49.95 (21). 20 Portugal . . . . . 49.12 (20). 21 Colombia . . . . . 48.72 (19). 22 Belgium . . . . . .47.09 (24). 23 Bulgaria . . . . . 46.27 (32). 24 Cameroon . . . . . 45.79 (22). 25 Scotland . . . . . 45.46 (29). 26 Poland . . . . . . 45.37 (23). 27 United States . . .45.08 (26). 28 Wales . . . . . . .44.49 (28). 29 Zambia . . . . . . 44.35 (25). 30 Morocco . . . . . .43.67 (30). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Last month's positions in brackets. -----------------------------------------------------------------