KUALA LUMPUR: Italy, the lowest ranked team in the FIH Series Finals, buried World No 27 Brazil 3-0 on Sunday, and are now looking forward to scalp 13th-ranked Malaysia in their last Group B match on Monday.
World No 32 Italy, who defeated 14th-ranked China 2-1 earlier, have six points so far.
The Italians are on cloud nine at the moment following their perfect start. They may now have to make changes to the return flight schedule as they have already booked the 8am flight on Sunday. The final and third-place matches are scheduled in the evening on the same day.
"We have qualified for the knockout stages with two wins and will play Malaysia next (to decide the group champions). We have nothing to lose in this match, so we will be very dangerous," said Italian captain Augustin Nunez.
And even if they do not top the table in Group B and qualify for the semi-finals automatically, they will still get a chance to reach the last four. The second and third placed teams in each group will play in a cross-over knockout to decide the other two semifinalists.
Short of saying that Italy did not expect this result, coach Roberto Da Gai said: "Yes we booked an early morning flight back to Italy on Sunday, but we now have a dream. We dare to dream big.”
Yesterday, Italy netted through Julian Montone (ninth and 36th) and Mattia Amorosini (47th).
Brazil were disappointed as they were hoping to avoid the last position in the group.
"We are very disappointed with this result as our target was to beat Italy and avoid finishing last in the group.
"But we still have one more match, and now we must beat China to achieve our target," said Brazil coach Claudio Rocha.