Alberto Aquilani Enjoying New-Look Italy Midfield

Italy sit six points clear at the top of Group C in their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign thanks to last night’s 1-0 victory away to Slovenia and Alberto Aquilani could not contain his excitement at Cesare Prandelli’s new midfield arrangement.

“Slovenia are a great side who caused us problems and we’d never won here before, but Italy out-played them and dominated on their own turf. That is notable,” the Juventus star said.

“I think the important thing for now and the future is that Italy were able to impose their tempo and style on the game, even away from home,” he added.

Aquilani lined up alongside Thiago Motta, Riccardo Montolivio and Stefano Mauri in midfield and the combination looked impressive from the outset.

“We were able to impose our football in Slovenia,” said the talented Roma native alluding to Italy’s failure in recent years to take command over weaker opposition.

Aquilani, who received rave reviews in post-match analyses was keen to play down his individual role and focus on the objective at hand, Euro 2012 qualification.

“I don’t know if it was my best performance for the Azzurri, but we were concentrated and came here knowing that in the past we had problems,” he said.

Italy’s next task is a difficult away trip to Ukraine for an international friendly on Tuesday.