Italy coach Marcello Lippi talked about the team's performance in their first World Cup qualification match against Cyprus, which they won 2-1 thanks a late, late goal by Antonio Di Natale.

After the 2-1 win away to Cyprus on Italy's first World Cup qualification match, coach Marcello Lippi admitted his team were lucky, and blamed their mediocre performance on the early injuries to Alessandro Gamberini and Fabio Grosso, as well as the poor fitness of some of the players.

"There's no doubt we got more than what we deserved tonight," he said. "Things started off badly for us, we were prepared to take risks and we knew that would give Cyprus more space, but I intended to change that later on.

"The two injuries early on made it difficult for us. I had to take a risk and put in [Gennaro] Gattuso to balance the team. It was unplanned, so we had to make do with the situation as it was."

Though it was a stuttering start for the World Champions, they lead Group 8 after tonight's result along with Ireland, who beat Georgia 2-1 earlier today.

"There are no teams that lie down or defend all the time anymore, and when you are behind in terms of physical shape it becomes even more difficult. We were lucky, but sometimes luck is important as well," Lippi concluded.

Italy's next qualification game is on Wednesday night against Georgia at Udine and the World Champions will look to make amends for tonight's far from convincing display.