Italy has done it: Marcello Lippi's boys have gotten the obligatory victory in Tbilisi against Georgia (2-0). Unfortunately that's more or less the only positive element to be found in saturday's game - of course there's also the great performance of the Azzurri's legendary keeper Gianluigi Buffon who has saved this victory for his team. The other "father of the victory" has been, against his intentions of course, AC Milan player Kaladze who scored two incredible (though nice to watch) goals against his own team that have decided the game for the Azzurri.

Of course Italy can't be too proud of this victory but in the end it's the result that counts, and Lippi is right when he points out that Italy rarely plays its most brilliant games during the World Cup qualifications. Unfortunately sometimes they don't play in a brilliant way also after the qualification but that's another story...
The fact is that Italy has beaten Georgia and with a victory wednesday evening against Bulgaria (Torino, 7:50 p.m.) they would be in the comfortable situation of going to Dublin with four points advantage on Giovanni Trapattoni's Irish team. The italian team will be the same as on saturday:

Goalkeepers: Buffon, de Sanctis, Marchetti
Defense Cannavaro, Chiellini, Criscito, Grosso, Legrottaglie, Santon, Zambrotta
Midfield: Camoranesi, D'Agostino, De Rossi, Marchionni, Marchisio, Palombo, Pepe, Pirlo
Forward: di Natale, Gilardino, Iaquinta, Quagliarella, Rossi

For Italy this is a very important game, the first match between the two teams has finished with a draw (0-0), the Bulgarians have made three draws in their away games so far (in Montenegro, in Georgia and also in Ireland), Italy has won two of his three home games (against Georgia and Montenegro) and has made one draw against Ireland (1-1). It would therefore be a good moment to win against Bulgaria and with a bit of concentration and the right attitude the italians should be able to do so.

In my opinion Italy will beat Bulgaria, my tip is 1, home victory for Italy, the best odd is on BetClick with 1,35